Aitia of Adventure
by Rexan
Summary: Idiot. What an IDIOT. Stow away on an outlaw's ship who has one of the largest bounties to be found? Not one of my better ideas. - OC Story - Complete.
1. The Strangers

_About the title: Aitia = 'Cause' in Greek or Latin. (don't remember which)_

_This story only goes up to Chopper, so that means no Robin, Franky, or Brook. Or Vivi, apparently. I was in the middle of the Alabasta arc while writing and finishing this fic, so I apologize about that. xP Also, there will be no pairings. (Yay! :D Well, sorry, LuNa fans and people like that, but... romance means 'bleh' to me.) This is my first fic ever, and I'm sorry if it's not too great. But, give it a try, please? Thanks! Hope you'll enjoy. ^^_

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After spending almost all day just sitting at the beach, I was bored and my butt was sore. From what? Sitting on sand. Yeah. Real great. "Ugh... I'm thirsty..." I moaned to myself. _Maybe some juice will do it... _I thought to myself. _Yeah, that sounds good._ Orange juice sounds like the perfect drink, I finally decided.

Since I wanted some orange juice, I strolled into the nearest restaurant, (on the inside, it's set up kind of like a bar, I guess) and I asked the guy for some juice.

The person working there handed me a mug full of the orange juice that I'd wanted, and I walked out. I always leave to eat or drink whatever I order. I'd come back later with the cup from my drink when I was done and then I'd pay the person. I've been doing it for a while, so everyone's used to it.

As I opened the door and left the restaurant, I passed by a strange group. Really, all it seemed like was a ragtag group of friends that had been dangerously sailing around on the sea, but they seemed fine; they didn't seem to care in the least bit that they were sailing the Grand Line.

The person in front had black hair and was wearing a straw hat, which struck me as kind of odd since someone wearing a straw hat isn't really a common thing for some reason.

After him was a girl with short, reddish orange hair and one of the things about _her_ that I really noticed was her... hm. This sounds odd. And wrong. Boobs. They were like... cantaloupes shaped like grapes that were sprouting from her chest, but they weren't really big enough to be melons. Something else that caught my eye with her was a tattoo that she had on her left arm. A curly-cued 'X' or something with some kind of fruit sprouting out of one of the 'arms' of the X.

Next to her was a guy who had blond hair and it seemed like he'd combed it in such a way so that it covered most of the left side of his face, making that eye impossible to see. His eye that was showing had a curled eyebrow. He was smoking a white cigarette, and a sudden smell of it that reached me and got into my throat which made made me cough uncomfortably.

Following the blond person was another guy with green hair that looked like it was cut pretty terribly, or with exact skill, since it looked like some kind of cool hairdo that might've possibly been achieved by enormous luck and randomly cutting it. He also had these three pretty cool gold earrings dangling from his left ear that seemed as if they could've possibly been clip-ons. And..._ Are those three swords at his waist?_ I found myself wondering.

Cowering behind him was an additional guy (I wasn't completely sure if it was a guy at the time...) with poofy black hair that was being sorta grown out. Over his hair was a green bandana-ish thing. The main aspect that really made him weird, though, was his nose. It was _so_ long!

After the long-nosed teen was a blue-nosed reindeer with a pink hat. The hat a white 'X' that looked like it was made out of thick, white tape. He was also wearing reddish-purple pants. I thought the reindeer was the strangest one in the whole group, actually.

The big group walked into the restaurant, but the long-nosed person warily glanced back at me before entering with everyone else. It's just that... the straw hat kid seemed so familiar... like I could've sworn I'd seen him before.

They were all around the same age, probably; possibly like seventeen to twenty years old or something around there. I'm not totally sure about how old reindeer can live to and what they look like at what age. For as much as I knew, he could've been a year old, ten, or even more. I have no clue when it comes to life spans of animals. It's not like I research that kind of thing.

Before I walked away to go and drink my juice, I noticed that the guy in the straw hat poked his head out the door and snatched a look at me. I looked straight back at him, and we just kept up the stare at each other thing for about ten seconds, when someone yelled at him, "Come _on!_" and it looked like he was tugged back inside the restaurant.

The sight kind of confused me, and I thought about the straw hat kid for a bit. _Why does he seem so familiar?_ was the thought that was circulating round and round in my head. I walked at a brisk pace for maybe ten or fifteen minutes over the cold pavement while slowly drinking my juice.

Finally, I came to my home: a tarp that was a propped up on a couple sticks. Just to make it easier to picture, it's only a sloppy tent that's at the end of a maze-like alleyway. Actually, the alley heads straight for a bit, and then turns several times until it comes to a dead end. There are several passages branching away in different directions, so someone'd either have to be totally lost, or knowing exactly where they're going to get here. It's a pitiful place to live, but it works.

Now, it's time to describe myself. I'm around seventeen years old; maybe closer to eighteen, maybe closer to sixteen. It's not like anyone gives a crap about how old I am anyways. There aren't any birthday parties for hobo-creep-teens anyways.

I was wearing a pair of old leather gloves, beat up jeans, and a sweatshirt that's just completely white. The sweatshirt is one or two sizes too big, so when I pull the hood over my head and yank the strings to close it, it conceals my entire face but leaves a spot that's just big enough to peek out of, which is what I was doing today. That's what I've been doing for three years, so it's habit, really.

That habit was also probably the reason why I had attracted a couple of curious looks from those people today. My feet... well, the covering is kind of like boots, I guess. They're an earthy brown-grey, clawed, and they look like T. Rex feet. They're very thick and protective, and not many people believe me, but they can be very quiet if I need them to be. Most would think they just get in the way, but they really don't.

I crawled into my home, and sat down on my sleeping bag. I heard some air _fshh_ out the other side when it was pushed up by me sitting down. I finished off the tiny bit of orange juice that was left and then set the empty mug down by the head of my bag.

My stomach started to growl, so I grabbed some sandwich ingredients out of a bag that was lying next to my sleeping bag. The ingredients I had bought that day were some ham, cheese, and bread. Oh... and there were a few slices of bologna left over from last night too! "This is going to be a great sandwich," I told myself happily.

I put the sandwich together, and was lifting it up to bite when—

"Hey, Freak! Are you in your little hobo house right now?"

I doubt anyone would believe me on how annoyed I felt at that moment. These kids had forgotten to come and bother me yesterday, so I had just immediately assumed that they were bored with bothering me. Apparently they weren't. It was also a dumb hope for me to have, since they'd been bugging me every day while I was in town ever since I can remember. Even then, whenever I leave to go anywhere for just a few days, they trash my place.

I gently hid my sandwich under my sleeping bag, and walked out to confront the kids. They were just your classic bullies: stupid, but ridiculously stronger than most of the average kids their age. They knew they weren't as strong as me, but I'll admit it, I can be a pushover. Playing tick-off-the-stupid-hobo-living-at-the-end-of-the-alleyway was their favorite game to pass the time.

The kid's two friends were standing by the sides of their leader: the tallest and stupidest of all three of them. They all gave me their 'we own this place' grins as their greeting.

Sorry, but I can't even begin to describe them. If I did, I would stray from their actual features and it would change to a bunch of stuff like '!*#&', and... well, I'd just really hate to start that.

"Guys, it really is impossible for you to go _two days _without bothering me, isn't it?"

"Sure is, Freak!" 'Freak' is the nickname they've given me. Besides me, they're the only ones who know what I look like under my sweatshirt.

The shortest kid in the group (he wasn't exactly short; I've seen shorter people of his age, but he was the shortest compared to his pals) pulled a grocery bag out from behind his back, and held it out in front of himself. There were heaps of rotting food and garbage in that bag; I knew that from too much firsthand experience.

The two others grabbed as much as they could carry, and then (I call this guy 'Shortness') Shortness scooped as much as he could hold. I'm guessing there was a bit more in there since he set it down on the ground for more ammo later on. If there wasn't more in there, he would've most likely tossed the bag into the dumpster that was standing just five feet away from him.

Alright, here's a note: I call the shortest kid, as I said earlier, Shortness, the middle height kid, Middlay, and then the tallest, Tallako. Yeah, it really doesn't have anything to do with anything, but I've never bothered to learn their real names.

"Ready... aim... _throw_!" Middlay announced.

"WAIT, A SECOND!" I shouted, waving my hands in front of me. I was going try something new. Out of all the time they've been annoying me, I'd never stood up to these kids, (Yeah. Surprise, surprise.) but I wanted to do something about them now.

All three of them were stunned. Stunned, not like, "OMG, I can't believe she actually did something," but stunned like surprised, such as when someone sneaks up on another person and then that person might not move for a split second. Their arms were all behind them, ready to throw whatever junk they were holding at that given moment. Just to be honest, it looked kinda funny looking at them with their mouths slightly open and then all of them having stinking garbage in their hands.

Their leader, Tallako, blinked after a moment and then shook his head and commanded, "Don't mind her; start throwing!"

Unfortunately for them, I was already prepared and had a plan in mind. It was a kind of stupid idea, but it would be fun and easy.

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_P.S.: The Straw Hats will be in every chapter; don't worry! :D_


	2. The Resolve

Calmly walking towards them, I swatted everything they threw at me away. The tomatoes that were way too squishy, worm-ridden apples, potatoes that were turning green, everything. With every step I took towards them, their throwing got more frantic and desperate. It _was_ kind of gross hitting that junk, but at least I had my gloves on, so it wasn't as bad as it could've been.

Once I finally reached them, all three of them dropped what was left of what they were holding and fled.

The fleeing idea didn't work out too well for them, since I grabbed them all by the back of their shirts when they had barely turned around to start running. Somehow, I'd managed to grab two of them with my right hand, and then the last one with my left. I draped them over my shoulders like some pieces of laundry so it was easier to bring them along with me opposed to dragging them on the ground.

I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised with how they acted now that they finally were caught by the karma they'd built up over the long time they'd been bothering me, but I was.

Middlay was crying, and Shortness wasn't doing anything except looking confused, scared, and dazed. I found it pretty strange that a face could fit those all those different feelings into a single expression. Tallako was enraged and pounding on my back as hard as he could; he was also indignantly shouting, "Put me down!" over and over again.

_Oh... this entertainment is just too much._

I looked up at the orange, sunset sky with a ridiculous, blissful smile. No one could see it, but if someone could, they would've known exactly what I was feeling now that I had finally gotten back at these kids. But wait, I wasn't done. Scaring them half to death wasn't enough... I had to do something else.

I wasn't worried about anyone seeing me carrying these kids since the sun was just starting to go down. In my town—there's really no reason for it—no one is out during sunset. Except for usually me, Tallako, and his two buddies. I'm sure people like to look out their windows and stare out at the sunset, but other than that, everybody is either at their job or at home. Once the sun is completely under the horizon and out of sight, that's when people start to go wherever they need to or want to again. It was a convenient habit of this town that made my living a lot easier.

The place I was heading for was a fountain in the middle of a plaza that was usually busy during the day, but pretty much no one ever came by at night unless they were heading home and they had to pass through it after their night shift. When I finally was out of the alley and in front of the fountain, the plaza was being basked in an orange glow from the sunset. I made a mental note to myself that I'd have to watch the sunset once I was done with the three kids.

Not really for any specific reason, I paused for a moment, stared at the fountain for a bit, and then...

I flung the kids into the water, and, man, it was _awesome_. They were flying through the air, flailing pointlessly, and then _splash! _They all landed with a glorious shower of water.

The only thing I could do then was laugh. I laughed until I was out of breath and my side was hurting like it was going to split open. All of their expressions were priceless. Tallako had an exasperated, "Wow, she is _such_ a loser," face while he was staring at me. Middlay had a, "Why was today so terrible?" ready to sob face, and Shortness was frustrated and was pounding his head on the centerpiece part of the fountain that spurted the water.

Their hair was all droopy and they were sopping wet. Content with my work, I started to head home.

Before I had barely even taken five steps, however, there was the sound of a group of people talking and noisily walking over the pavement. I scrambled behind the nearest (and only) cover that I saw, which was an old, rusting, and stinking dumpster. I crouched behind it and just stayed there as quietly, and as still, as possible. The kids in the fountain stood up, clumsily floundered through the water for a second, and then hastily ran away once they were out; I didn't know what had scared them so much, but they had turned paler than a sheet of clean paper.

Why had the three kids been so scared? Besides just then and when I had confronted them earlier, I had never seen them scared, and I've seen them do some pretty stupid things around the town during the day that should make pretty much anyone frightened.

After a short moment of contemplation, I realized I could've hidden behind the fountain. _But if the group continued walking in the same direction, the circular shape of the fountain could have been a problem, _I argued with myself. _Oh well. This works fine. Long as they didn't see me, I guess._

"Did you see what weird person with the jacket earlier, Nami? I wonder what he's like!"

"Luffy, it's a sweatshirt."

"Yeah, yeah. The sweatshirt person."

Luffy? I cautiously peeked out of my hiding spot, and realized that this was the group I'd seen earlier walking into the restaurant. _The kid in the straw hat... so his name is Luffy._ He started bothering me more than ever: the name, the hat, his face, everything about him seemed so familiar, but I couldn't figure out why!

Luffy sat down on the wall of the fountain for a few minutes, and all of his friends just stopped walking and continued talking to him. The weird thing was, I could've sworn that there was a sixth person talking there, and there were only five people. There was the reindeer, but everyone knows animals can't talk. I suspected I was only imagining things after a bit.

Just to sum up their long, yet entertaining, conversation, I'll say this: Luffy thought I was cool, and he wasn't exactly... well... that bright, just to put it bluntly.

It was probably about fifteen minutes or so until Luffy stood up and walked away and his friends followed. My legs had fallen asleep from the stiff and uncomfortable position I'd been in, and having asleep legs isn't ever really that fun. When I got up, I almost fell back down because I couldn't feel my legs. Right then, I was in the weird jelly-ish stage of sleeping legs that turns into mild needles, then a kind of bothersome pressure later on. The sky was still orange, but it wasn't as bright out, which meant people would probably be coming out in a few minutes. That was the best time to start walking home again.

When I was a comfortable distance back in the alley, I shook my legs to try to get complete feeling back into them but was still bothered by the third part of asleep legs for the majority of the walk home.

The thing is, I knew that Tallako and his buddies hadn't gone to trash my home while I was eavesdropping on Luffy's group, since I would have undoubtedly noticed some drenched idiots trying to sneak past me.

About half-way home, I remembered the orange juice mug I needed to return. That was the first time I hadn't returned the mug within one or two hours to the restaurant, and the place was closed by now, so I just decided that I'd return it tomorrow and pay a bit extra.

Finally, I arrived at home. The walk took about forty minutes since I had wanted to find somewhere kinda high that wasn't blocked off by buildings. The reason I had searched for an elevated area was like I had mentioned earlier: I had wanted to watch the sunset. The sun let off gorgeous red and orange light that night, so I knew nicer weather than usual (since it's the Grand Line...) would be in store for tomorrow. _I might as well take advantage of that_, I thought to myself. After the sunset had disappeared under the horizon, I continued my stroll home. I lived on an island, so there's ocean all around and it makes almost every night one to live for, even if it's just for watching the sunset.

Back at my tent, I was leafing through Wanted posters trying to figure out who I wanted to go after next. I'm a bounty hunter, and it gives its rewards during these pirate infested times.

After already pretty much deciding my next unfortunate victim, I still wanted to check my last few posters. The ones on the bottom of the pile are the newest ones, and I keep it that way since I like to go after the pirates and thieves that have been wreaking havoc for a longer amount of time first.

One of the people around the bottom of the pile that I recognized was... Luffy. Monkey D. Luffy. There he was. The straw hat kid from earlier today. Staring me in my face, and I was staring back with a gaping mouth. The way my mouth was open (but still hidden under my sweatshirt hood) made me think of the three kids when I had first surprised them. I understood what they had felt like. And... he had one of the largest bounties in my whole pile: thirty million. The average outlaw had less than ten million, and the smaller, wimpier ones were just around one million or less. Five million to eight million, and extremely rarely nine through possibly the occasional eleven million, were the ones I went after. Those kids... the way they had paled when Luffy walked up... was that because they'd seen his posters around or heard rumors about him? Either way, though, thirty million berries can make anyone seem frightful.

I shook my head, just thinking, _No, no, there must be a mistake. That kid couldn't have done anything to earn that bounty._ He was just... too stupid! Every outlaw on these posters had at least a tiny shred of intelligence, while Luffy didn't seem to have any!

His picture was him waving at the cameraman with a _huge_ grin. He was covered in dirt and looked kind of roughed up, like he had just been in a fight. Just the way he was smiling though, I could tell that he wasn't a normal outlaw. Everyone else on all the other posters either was frowning, had no expression, or had one of the many kinds of smirks on their face.

But Luffy, he was smiling a real smile, one that showed he was having a great time, and just wanted to be with his friends. He was pretty much announcing to the world he was in the picture, and he was proud of it. The thing was, he didn't seem like a vicious pirate at all; anyone could tell that much by just barely glimpsing at the picture.

I sighed. There was no point in thinking too hard about him, I eventually decided. _I should start packing for tomorrow's journey_, I thought. I grabbed my backpack that was in the corner of my tent, and put my needed items into it.

_But... this kid seems interesting,_ I finally convinced myself. I already have more than one hundred million berries in my stash from all those countless outlaw catches; I don't need to go on another voyage to earn more money. I wanted to learn a bit more about him, and there was pretty much nothing for me to lose by doing this. I knew I'd have to find his ship and board it to learn more about him, so I was going to do just that. According to the reddish haired girl, they'd be picking up anchor tomorrow morning, so if I wanted to find their ship, I'd better do it soon, I resolved.


	3. Sleep is Important, Right?

For an hour, I just waited for the rest of the shops and restaurants to close down for the night so I could have an easier time around town. Taking the time and the way I was dressed up into account, if someone saw me, they would probably think I'd want to mug them or something, so it wouldn't have been a great idea to leave when people were still bustling to and fro.

Once the moon was high and in the middle of the sky, I lifted my backpack, pulled my arms through the straps, and set off to search for Luffy's ship.

My first destination was a mouth of one of the main rivers of the island. A lot of the fishermen head there since a variety of fish swim and thrive in it, and the fish also taste great if they're caught fresh and cooked just right. But then again, doesn't everything? For that reason, it's also a popular camping site. It was a fifty minute walk from my home to there, and after searching it for an additional ten minutes, I didn't find anything out of the ordinary. No boats, no ships, nothing.

I shrugged, not really caring, since there were many different places where a pirate could hide a ship in or on my island.

The next place I checked was a cave that was thirty minutes from the last place I had checked. Water leads throughout the entire place, and there are a few feet of rock on the sides that people can use as a kind of sidewalk. It doesn't go in that deep, and the ship would have to be rather small to be able to fit in it, so I knew it was unlikely it would be in here, but it could seem like a good hideout if the ship _was_ small enough.

This routine continued for a while, and with each place I visited and there were no hints of Luffy's ship, I grew more frantic in my search. _The night doesn't last forever_, I had to remind myself each time my searching grew lax, and after a while I was sprinting to place after place. Eventually, I ended up in the middle of town where I had started.

I slapped my forehead, feeling defeated, exhausted, and stupid. _How did I end up back _here_?_ The docks were pretty close; almost right in front of me. They were one of the only places I really liked to go when I felt upset or depressed.

I smiled to myself, thinking of Shortness, Middlay, and Tallako. They had never figured out where I went during the day. They always assumed I was either at the grocery store buying food or at my tent. I usually spent the day at my tent, but the others, I just gazed out at the ocean, watching the reflection of the sun and other things in the sky dancing on the waves.

_Now, all I can do is hope he didn't hide his ship in another wharf or cove on the other side of the island_. It was true; if he had, it would've been impossible to get there before the sun came up and they set off. There were several other spots he could have found, and there was no way, even if I ran as fast as I could non-stop, I'd be able to search through every single possible hiding spot there was.

I walked over to one of the docks and sat down at the end of it. It calmed me down, staring out at the ocean, but it didn't exactly clear my mind enough to aid me in figuring out how to find Luffy and his friends before they set off. _Wait... he's a pirate. Were those people on his crew? Pirates don't have friends. Do they?_ I mean, I'd never seen those people before, and people don't come here for sightseeing; not in the middle of the Grand Line. Who were they? _They have to be on his crew_, I figured. _They couldn't have been anyone else. Besides, it seems like they've known each other for a while._

Slowly, my confused and anxious thoughts began to evaporate while I was mindlessly watching the stars' reflections flicker and dance on the waves. Those thoughts changed into much less troubled ones, and I began to not think about anything but the small waves beneath my feet.

The sky was starting to gather a very faint blue color and two of the stars in the sky had started to fade, so those subtle hints definitely hinted to me that morning was approaching.

After ten minutes or so, I stood up and stretched. If I wasn't able to find Luffy again, I might as well set my mind on something else.

_At least, for the time being_, I told myself.

Right when I turned around to head back home, I saw something strange out of the corner of my eye. I looked, and... _Whose ship is that? _I curiously wondered. To my right was a caravel, a medium sized ship, and it had a cheerful looking ram masthead. Almost right in the middle of that thought, it dawned on me. _This is Luffy's ship!_ I almost yelled out of joy.

I ran over to the ship, but right before I got too close to it, I heard someone running in the sand towards me. I sharply took in a breath, and my heart felt like it was being burned by my fright. Turning my head a bit so I could see who was running up to me, I realized it was Luffy. _This_ has_ to be his ship._ He had a huge grin on his face, and he was carrying tons of stuff in his arms.

Suddenly, he stopped running. Then he turned around and seemed to be looking for something for a bit. Then he let out a playful laugh, and started to do a kind of skip-run back the direction he had come. He soon disappeared back into town, and I let out a relieved sigh.

Just to bug me, bothersome thoughts drifted into my head. I was having second thoughts about boarding this ship. _Why would a big-time pirate just casually be anchored at the island's main docks? Was he thinking of the 'hidden in plain sight' tactic? Or was he just being stupid? _After a moment of staring up at the ship, I decided I was going to seize this opportunity, no matter what. Even though all the pirates I've gone after have had a more ferocious looking masthead than a smiling ram, I still concluded this was his, since he didn't seem at all like other pirates anyways.

Cautiously, I walked the rest of the way to his ship. For a brief second, I scanned the ship for a way up, and the only way I found was the anchor's rope. I jumped onto the rope, and after quite a bit of scrabbling against the side to gain any kind of grip without falling into the water, I was on the rope with a strong and confident grip. Using the side of the ship to help me up, I was on board in no time. On the way up, I was thinking, _This kind of seems like mountain climbing!_

There had been no problems the whole way up, except for the top. Even so, the only problem there was a rail made of wood that had wooden rails coming out from under it that would've been impossible to squeeze through since they were just too close together.

It was still pretty easy to avoid any problems with those since I just grabbed a spot maybe about an arm's length away where the rail ended. All I had to do was grab that, inch over a tiny bit, swing my legs over, pull myself up, and I was on.

Whether I heard or saw them first, I don't exactly remember. Luffy was in the lead, followed by the green haired guy and long nose, who was walking next to the reindeer and... talking to it? Then it was the curly eyebrow guy, who was still talking to that girl. When I had gotten to looking at the green haired guy, he... looked right at me. I think he glared at me, and it sent a chill down my spine thinking that he was able to see me in this darkness at that distance. They were still extremely far away, and no normal human should be able to see someone like that.

Kind of creeped out, I tried to find any room I could hide in. I opened the door of the first one I saw, and then looked up at the sky before heading in. Again, the sky was a bit brighter but still not exactly 'morning' sky. There were fewer stars than before, so it was going to be an hour or so before Luffy and his crew set off.

After carefully closing the door behind me, I hid behind the first place I could find. My guess at the time was that I had hidden behind a bunch of boxes filled with supplies, and a few sacks of other stuff, but I didn't have any specific ideas. It was still really dark out, so it was impossible for me to tell _exactly_ what I'd hid behind. Also, the only thing giving any hint of light was a small porthole in the door, and that didn't help much of anything. Compared to outside, it was extra dark since the moon and stars weren't here to aid me with seeing around inside. (No, duh. Really?)

My backpack was kind of cramping me up in the hiding spot I'd picked, so I took it off and set it on the floor next to me. After double checking that it wasn't poking out anywhere and that it was still hidden, I heard people start to board the ship.

After several minutes of waiting, I felt my eyelids start to sneak over my eyes. It didn't feel like I was blinking or anything, but they were hinting that I was drowsy and I needed to sleep. _No... I can't_—I suddenly yawned—_fall asleep... _And I fell asleep like the idiot I am.


	4. Introductions

I'm guessing I'd only slept for an hour, but when I woke up, the bright morning sun was dumping what seemed like all of its light into the room I was in. Feeling kind of stiff, I looked around warily and made sure no one was in the room. After checking once or twice, there was no sign of anybody in it. I stood up and stretched, but I was still being careful since I didn't want to knock down any of the boxes or sacks and attract any unneeded attention to myself.

Right when I was done stretching, I slumped back down behind the boxes. The place I was in seemed like a storage room. There were barrels that were filled with most likely some alcohol, along with a few others that were probably filled with water. I have no idea what was in the boxes, but there were sacks of flour on top of them.

Several people were walking around on the main deck, and it seemed like there were one or two people in a room above me.

"Sanji! Time for breakfast!" I heard someone yell from outside. I guessed that Luffy had yelled the breakfast command, if I remembered his voice correctly.

"Alright, alright. I'm on it. I just gotta get some flour," someone replied.

The person who had said that then walked into the room I was in and I held my breath, fearing that it might give me away. When I took in that breath, I caught a whiff of cigarette from the person coming in, so my only guess was that it was the person from yesterday with the tuxedo.

Yeah, the guy needs flour, of course. _Just perfect_, I sarcastically thought, while glaring for no particular reason at a box that was in front of my face. _If my luck keeps up like this, I'll be walking this crew's plank in no time. Or... whatever they do to stowaways here._

There were two bags of flour that were stacked on top of each other right above my head, and the guy just _had _to choose those two, right? My heart started pounding, and, excuse this overused sentence, but I was sure he'd be able to hear my heart hammering if he didn't see me first.

I didn't move at all, so I couldn't move my head to see what the guy looked like. All I was able to see were his hands grabbing the large sacks of flour.

He left the room quickly, and right when I heard the door close and his footsteps fade, I let out a loud sigh. I was able to breathe again, and it felt like a complete relief to know I hadn't been found out. To be honest, I was kind of surprised he hadn't discovered me, but I was glad he hadn't. Thank goodness.

Within just the next few minutes, an amazing aroma drifted to my nose.

Pancakes.

After pretty much living off of sandwiches and lunch meats for as long as I can remember, smelling something like that sent me into ecstasy. I've never eaten at a restaurant since I haven't ever felt comfortable sitting around long enough to eat a good meal at one.

My stomach started to growl obnoxiously, and I started grabbing it and squeezing it as hard as I could to make it stop. It hurt, I'll say that much.

_**Yeah, punish the stomach. I'm sure it'll shut up now.** _I rolled my eyes at that. There was really nothing else I could do, though. I'd forgotten to eat the sandwich I made last night, I realized.

_Oh, geez._ What was going to become of my tent and all that food? All of the food items in it had been extremely perishable. "They'll probably be rotting by the end of today_,_" I grumbled. I'd forgotten to pack food. Any food. My hunger from last night had been forgotten at the thought of pursuing Luffy, and now it was remembered in twice the intensity it had been before I ate my sandwich.

What an _idiot!_ I would've started hitting my head on something. I really would've. I'm not kidding. If I wasn't a stowaway on a pirate's ship, I would've hit my head until I was unconscious. So what did I pack? I tried to remember.

500,000 berries... my weapons... and... and... aaaaannnnddd.... a toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste. Oh, wow. What had I been _thinking?!_ That was exactly the problem though. "I wasn't thinking_,_" I growled to myself. Right. _Hooray, I brought my dental items. Oh, joy. I'm thrilled._ Out of all my trips, I'd never forgotten anything, so how come I had to forget everything, of all times, now?

My stomach growled again. The smell of pancakes was becoming overwhelming, and my poor, tortured stomach wasn't able to stand it. The only thing that I had had yesterday was that mug of orange juice. No food, just juice. How was I going to cope with that? I've been starved before, and for over five days at that, but it had never been while I was hiding on a ship. _Well, that__'__s just great._

It sounded like the guy who came in for the flour a few minutes earlier said something to someone above me that I couldn't exactly make out, then he yelled, "Oi! You idiots, breakfast!"

A gleeful shout came from the people on the deck, and a stampede of footsteps followed. Just by the sound, I guessed that they all went up a flight of stairs, and settled onto some benches or chairs in a room above me.

The pancake smell grew stronger than ever, and my stomach was burning and growling, begging for breakfast.

For a bit, save my protesting stomach, everything was quiet, and I assumed that meant everyone was busy eating.

Unfortunately, that 'bit' only meant a short minute.

Someone, only one person, started to walk out of what I guessed was their kitchen or dining room area and went down the stairs. I hoped that the person only had to go to the bathroom, but my hopes were in vain.

The door that led into the room I was hiding in opened and whoever had just come down the stairs strolled in. They closed the door, approached my hiding spot, but stopped only a few steps away. Whoever it was rustled some of the flour bags, and I saw some of the light that was beaming from the porthole glint on the small flour particles that had been disturbed and sent into the air.

My nose started to itch, and that only meant one thing: I was going to sneeze. Carefully, so carefully, I placed my hands over my nose. (My hood was still up after all of this, thank goodness.)

I could tell the person was still waiting there, and after many agonizing seconds, they started to leave.

Then, right when they were opening up the door, I let out a muffled sneeze.

And then my stomach growled.

_Oh, crap. Oh, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, CRAP! _I hopelessly thought.

The door closed, but I knew the person hadn't left. The noise of a sword unsheathing was heard, and I held my breath, even though it was obvious that I'd already been found out.

Barely a split second later, there was a katana being pointed at my throat. My exhausted stomach lurched, and when I looked up, I was staring right into the eyes of the green-haired swordsman from yesterday.

Submissively and with shaking legs, I stood up. On all of my bounty hunting missions I've ever gone on, I've never been discovered. They were all more like assassinations than anything. I'd never been found out, so I didn't know what to do then when I finally had.

"What are you doing here?" he asked me, glaring viciously.

I think I probably did the worst thing anyone possible could. I made up a lie. "Huh? Who're you?" I inquired back, trying to sound as confused as possible. "I thought this was my friend's ship! He has an almost identical masthead, and the ship is about the same size, too. So... I guess this isn't the right ship. Err... sorry."

What I had just said probably wasn't that convincing, but it was the best thing I had been able to come up with a second's notice. The acting was pretty good I guess, but come _on,_ isn't a friend the oldest lie ever?

The guy slackened his grip on his katana slightly, but his scary glare didn't waver in the least. He narrowed his eyes, and then said, "Cut the crap. You're coming with me."

He turned around, sheathed his sword, and then opened the door and walked out. Wielding my own weapon wouldn't have taken long at all, but I had a gut feeling that wasn't the right thing to do just then.

I hadn't moved when he started leaving; my legs just felt too weak. But then he looked back, and I knew that my only option was to follow. Forcing my legs to move, I reluctantly and shakily followed behind him.

We went out onto the main deck area, and he shut the door to the storage area once I was out. Next we walked up a flight of stairs and into the kitchen area where everyone had disappeared into earlier.

I'd forgotten about my hunger most likely due to being ridiculously scared by the swordsman. I remembered my hunger in a heartbeat once I'd walked into the room and my stomach decided that it needed to remind me as noisily as possible.

"Hey, look what I found in the storage room," the swordsman announced to his crewmates.

Everyone from yesterday was sitting around a table on some benches eating pancakes, and it was complete torture seeing them eating, I'll say that much. The only difference in the group was that the blue-nosed reindeer was more like a mini man-reindeer instead. He was fuzzy and still looked reindeer-ish, but he was much shorter and looked as if he could walk on his two, short back legs. To pick up his fork and knife, he was almost balancing them in between his front hooves, but he was actually somehow more holding them than balancing.

But really, the small man-reindeer was almost completely ignored by me the first time I saw him since I hadn't been thinking about anything except that I'd been found out so early on.

"Oh, yeah! I remember you!" Luffy stated with his mouth full of chewed up pancakes. "You're that weird jacket person from yesterday. You're cool." He swallowed the pancake mush in his mouth and continued shoveling food into his mouth after he'd gotten his two bits into the conversation.

The red-orange haired girl looked curious, but the blond guy in the tuxedo was the next to talk. "What were you doing on our ship? Doesn't a pirate ship seem like a kind of strange place to spend the day?"

"Um... well... See, it was just an accident. I thought this was my _friend's _ship, and—"

"I said, cut the crap," the green-haired guy growled. He had been standing behind me this entire time, and it was beginning to be awfully intimidating.

My stomach growled, and then the blond guy asked, "Hey, want some breakfast? You seem kind of hungry."

My stomach answered for me.

"There are more pancakes by the stove. I mean, if you want them."

"Oi! Sanji! Seconds!" Luffy yelled.

"Me, too!" long-nose happily ordered.

"You'd be on your _sixths_ if I gave you another serving," the blond angrily replied. (After that, I guessed his name was Sanji. I'll call him that from now on.) "There's someone here that actually _needs_ food, and you need to let them have some. As for you, Usopp..." his gaze wandered to the long-nosed person, "...I'll have to ask Nami-san to make sure there's enough for her." He turned to look at the orange-haired girl. "Nami-_swwaaan!_ Will you be wanting anymore food?"

"I'll be fine, Sanji."

Luffy's simple reply was a disappointed groan, but long-nose eagerly jumped up and picked two more pancakes from the pile and then sat down again.

Sanji stood up from the bench and grabbed a plate for me. On top of it, he piled on four pancakes. "Here you go. You can sit where I was; I'm fine with standing."

"Er... I don't... No. I'm sorry." My awkward answer was just to gently push the plate pack at Sanji.

Giving me a confused look, he insisted, "Really. It's fine. There's nothing wrong with it."

As if to prove the cook's point, Luffy protested, "More food, Sanji!" Sanji just glared at him, and he shut up.

"You really should have something. I don't like having someone who's starving in my kitchen." He held the plate out to me again.

Warily, I took the plate and sat down. Picking up a fork Sanji had placed at what was now my spot a split second before I had sat down, I cut off a bit of one of the pancakes. Then I put it in my mouth—still cloaked by my hood, thank you very much—and ate it. "Oh, wow..." I ate a bit more and couldn't stop my outburst. "Sanji! This is amazing!!"

"Thank you. And yes, I'm the cook on this ship. Glad you like it." He gave me a content nod.

My four, amazing, delightful, fluffy, (and the list goes on) pancakes were practically inhaled by me. Luffy was sitting cross legged on the bench with his lips sticking out making that pouty face look. "Sanji," he started, "Are you sure I can't—"

"I'm sure," Sanji interjected.

I think I forgot to mention that the swordsman also sat down at his spot almost right across the table from me and started eating, even though he kept glancing at me suspiciously between bites.

My seconds, in other words, my fifth through eighth pancakes, were given to me and then wolfed down within a minute or so. Sanji's food was just amazing! I could continue eating it all day!

Sanji stared in astonishment at my plate after I'd polished off my last pancake, and then he asked, "When was the last time you ate?"

"Yesterday. But then again... all I had yesterday was a mug of orange juice. Err... If I'm not hogging all the food, can I have four more pancakes? Eight, if possible."

Sanji unsurely told me, "I'll... keep you with four."

"Fine by me."

I went up to Sanji and he neatly set down four more pancakes onto my plate. I sat back down, and I started gorging myself with the food. In the middle of my second pancake, I realized that I was eating them without any butter or syrup on top, and yet they still tasted like a piece of Heaven floated down to Earth and onto my plate.

"So, what's your name?" the girl finally requested.

"Well, I'd feel a bit more comfortable if all you gave me that information first," I replied to her.

She gave me a knowing smile, and then she started, "Alright. Well, I'm Nami. Our cook, as you already seem to have figured out, is Sanji. The pouting kid next to you is Luffy. (He let out an upset, "Hmph," right then.) The green-haired guy with the haramaki is Zolo, long-nose over there is Usopp, and the blue-nosed man-reindeer is Chopper."

"Okay. Well, I'm Renor," I truthfully answered. The next part wasn't as truthful, though. "I came onto this ship by accident as I told your _friend_, Zolo." He looked up at me for a second. "And... yeah," I stupidly finished.

Usopp spoke up next. "A-are you the Wh—"

"Why don't you take off your hood?" Luffy interrupted, grinning.

Chopper eagerly nodded his antlered head, while Usopp wasn't looking too sure, but he seemed curious about the hood.

"I'd rather not." I pulled it closed a tiny bit more.

"Why not?"

"Oi, Luffy, Chopper," Sanji came in, "it's Renor's business about what's under there, not yours."

"Alright, fine," Luffy sulked.

Looking at Luffy right then, I just couldn't begin to imagine him earning one million on his head, let alone thirty!

Usopp tried to say something again. "Renor, right? Are you also the W—"

"There are a few more pancakes left," Sanji declared, cutting Usopp off. "Does anyone want them?"

Everyone either stared at him blankly, or shook their heads.

"Have you eaten enough, Sanji?" I asked.

"Hm? Oh, yeah. I'm fine with four. So no one wants them? You all know what I say about wasting food."

I looked up at him quizzically.

Chopper, who was sitting straight across from me and next to Zolo, quickly explained, "Wasting food is bad."

"Got it, thanks," I nodded.

"Oh! I want them! I want them!" Luffy suddenly burst out, finally processing the question Sanji had asked.

"Fine," Sanji sighed.

He stepped over to where Luffy was sitting and he slid the last pancakes onto the plate.

"Yeah!!" Luffy celebrated. Barely ten seconds passed since Sanji had served the pancakes to Luffy, when Luffy let out a huge belch and a satisfied sigh, finished with his breakfast.

Sanji glared at Luffy, but then he closed his eyes, faced the floor, and let out a loud breath. He then looked back up and asked us to put our plates in the sink.

We all did so. I stayed behind in the kitchen to silently ponder about the whole idea of being stuck on Luffy's ship. Luffy didn't leave with everyone; everybody else went to go and do apparently whatever they do in the morning. When everyone was out on the deck, Luffy started talking, strangely serious compared to what I'd come to think of his as.

"You're a wimp."

"What?" I was taken aback, completely caught off guard.

"You knew we were pirates. You were lying about your friend and everything."

"How'd you know that?" I inquired, now suspicious of Luffy. _I know my acting wasn't _that_ great, but how'd he know it so simply?!_

"I don't know. I just had this feeling. So you're really just a wimp? I thought you were cool, but I guess you're not."

"Alright, Luffy. Can I explain myself a bit before you start judging me?"

"Sure!" he answered, sounding a bit more cheerful.

I paused for a moment and took a breath. "Okay. I just... wanted to find out more about you," I admitted. "I hadn't expected to really be found out and I didn't know what to do," I explained. I paused, and after a second of thought, I added, "I'm not a wimp, though."

"Okay, you're cool then," he said, grinning again. "Are you gonna take your hood off now?"

"You're pushing it," I growled.

"Aw. Well... wanna play tag?" He sounded excited about it, which I found kind of funny.

"Alright," I replied, unable to turn him down.

"Great! 'Kay, I'll go get Usopp and Chopper!" Luffy ran off beaming and holding onto his hat.

* * *

_I think I should thank everyone who's reviewed so far; you all have no idea how much it means to me! Thank you SO much! Every review is appreciated. :D (If I dare say so, they're more appreciated than favorites. ;D)  
_


	5. Just a Game of Tag

Once Luffy's footsteps had faded a bit and I heard him excitedly talking to someone outside, I walked out.

Looking down at the deck about ten feet below, I could see Luffy and Usopp trying to convince (but it seemed more like just bothering) Zolo, who was trying to take a nap.

Without meaning to, I smiled to myself. It was kind of funny watching Luffy pester Zolo. Zolo seemed to respect Luffy, but I couldn't imagine the exact reason why at that given time. After a minute, Zolo muttered something, and then Usopp and Luffy both let out a disappointed groan.

I walked down the stairs and Luffy immediately perked up when he saw me.

"Usopp," I heard him begin. "Renor's gonna be playing tag with us, too!"

Again, I smiled, but of course he couldn't see it.

Luffy walked up to me like he was going to tell me something important, then...

"Tag, you're It," he gleefully announced after poking me. He dashed towards the other side of the ship, laughing.

Usopp ran away also, and since I couldn't find Chopper, I guessed that he had already started playing, too.

I laughed, and then started walking around checking for any movement around me.

After taking just a few steps, I heard someone trying to tiptoe by me. Quickly, I turned around and saw Usopp trying to sneak away. Usopp returned my look for a second, then he ran off quicker than seemed even humanly possible!

I chased after him for a while, and I think I was going pretty quick, but Usopp was going just as quick, or maybe even more so than me. A few times, he slightly around to try to ask me a question that usually started with, "Are you—" but then he'd always stop talking because he realized he was slowing down.

Finally, after we'd passed by Nami, who was lounging on a foldable chair shaded by an umbrella and reading a newspaper, for around the third time, she yelled, "Quiet down! I'm trying to read here!"

Usopp paused for a split second, and that was all I needed to close the distance between us.

I tagged him and triumphantly shouted, "You're It!" Nami looked at me, annoyed, but she just refocused her attention to the article she'd been reading.

Usopp groaned, but I was already out of sight before he had a chance to do anything. I passed by Luffy while trying to put some more distance Usopp and me, and Luffy started jogging alongside me. Once we were both jogging around the ship, avoiding Usopp, Luffy asked me, "Who's It?"

"Usopp," I answered. He nodded, then pointed at the crow's nest on top of the mast.

"That's where Chopper is. Wanna go tell him Usopp's It?"

"Why don't you?"

"'Cause I just snuck some food and Sanji's coming after me."

I looked back, and not to my surprise, I saw Sanji start to angrily chase after Luffy.

"Alright, good luck with that," I told Luffy. He smiled, and raced off. Since the ship wasn't that big, Luffy started leading Sanji in circles. _When did he sneak the food, though?_ I questioned. _The way Sanji reacted, it was like Luffy snuck the food while he was running with me._ Come to think of it, Luffy _did_ start eating something thirty seconds or so into the time he was running with me, but when did he get the chance to grab the food?

Hastily climbing up to the crow's nest, sure enough, I found Chopper hiding in it.

When he saw me peek over the side at him, he gasped. He probably wasn't really expecting me to pop up out of nowhere. Looking at me with huge eyes, he asked, "You're not It, are you?"

"Nah," I replied. "Usopp is. Mind if I talk to you for a sec?"

Chopper shook his head. "Hey, um, were you that reindeer I saw yesterday?"

"Yeah," he answered, and he seemed pretty curious about where I was going with this conversation.

"So... you ate a Devil Fruit then, right? Which one?"

"I ate the Human Human fruit. That's why I can talk." I nodded. "It also allows me to transform into two other forms whenever I want. I have this form, the reindeer one you saw yesterday, and then my human one. But since I ate it—"

"Yeah, I know. It takes away your ability to swim, and you're an anchor in the water. So... yup. Thanks, Chopper. I was just interested about that. So that's what the Devil Fruit you ate does?"

"Uh-huh. That pretty much sums it up, I guess."

"Alright. By the way, I love your cute blue nose."

The instant I said that, a huge, happy grin spread across Chopper's face. "W-what are you talking about? I'm completely immune to your flattery!" he stammered happily. He started doing a funny little clapping dance, and he started calling me 'idiot,' 'moron,' and other words that I was surprised that such a cute reindeer would know.

"You sure are immune," I sarcastically told him. "Well, I'll be going. I think Usopp spotted me." And I wasn't saying that just so I could leave; Usopp really was staring up at me from the deck; strangely, it looked like he was thinking about something. _Maybe he's wondering if he should climb up here and try to tag me, _I concluded. I climbed down the ladder from the crow's nest, and jumped down when I was only about seven feet or so from the floor. Usopp reached out to tag me when I landed, but I managed to dodge around him, and then I took off.

Again, I passed by Nami, but this time she was just lying down on the chair with her back up to the sky. Her umbrella was folded up and leaning against a nearby rail, and I saw her check her Log Pose one or two times to make sure the ship was heading in the right direction.

Looking around, I saw that there was a staircase leading up on top of the roof of the kitchen. I went up the stairs, and saw that there were several tangerine trees! Well, the trees look more like oversized bushes than anything, but I think they're referred to as trees.

Sanji was picking the ripe fruit from the trees and putting them into a barrel.

Just by listening, I could tell Usopp had slowed down his pace since he had lost sight of me and I presumed that he had then gone to look for someone else to tag by the sound from his run that was steadily going into the close-ish distance.

I started talking to Sanji since I was just kind of unsure about the whole 'pirate' thing and Luffy. "So... are you guys really pirates?" I inquired.

"Well, according to our captain we are." He chuckled. "Really, we're not like other pirates, though. We get a pretty bad rep because of Luffy yelling at everyone, 'I'm gonna be the Pirate King!'" he mimicked Luffy's voice. "Also, he brags about what a great pirate he is. Still, if I, or anyone else for that matter, would be caught saying we're anything other than pirates, Luffy'd probably throw a fit since being a pirate is his dream.

"He says that he's been waiting to be a pirate for a long time, and I'm not one to argue with him about it. But really, nothing _that_ bad happens just by keeping the title, so why not?" Sanji let out a swiff of smoke from his cigarette, and then he lifted up the basket he'd been using to collect the tangerines.

He climbed down the stairs, but then looked back up at me when he reached the bottom. "As long as I can achieve my dream on this ship, I'm fine with Luffy being our captain." And then, in a much, much quieter voice he added, "And as long as he doesn't mistreat ladies like some of those other freakin' crap-pirates we've encountered." Sanji walked away and into the kitchen, I think, and most likely started making some food with them or maybe he just put them in the fridge or somewhere else. I think he put them somewhere else.

I walked down the stairs, but was confronted by a grinning Chopper a few seconds later. He poked me, then proclaimed loudly, "Renor's It!" and he ran off, laughing giddily.

Sighing and smiling, I looked around for someone to tag.

The first person I saw (besides Nami) was Luffy, who was creeping around the main mast. He was walking around sneakily, but 'sneakily' doesn't exactly work out when the person who's doing the sneaking is walking around in flip-flops making that _klop_ noise. I could tell he was trying to find out who was It and avoid them.

I grinned maliciously, then hopped over the railing and landed in front of Luffy with a _thud._

He didn't flinch at all, but instead, he looked up at me, backed a few feet away, and then he...

Walked off the side of the ship! I ran over to get him grab him and stop him from falling into the ocean, but there was no splash, no yell, or anything. Searching for him, I was completely confused and worried when I didn't see any hint of Luffy, but then I heard him laughing behind me, and his laugh was quickly sounding further away, and... higher above me?

Turning around and looking up, I saw Luffy what seemed like flying up to the crow's nest. His hand had grabbed onto the top of it, and his arm had stretched out so he could grab it. It seemed impossible, but he was doing it right then. _He's... stretching... Huh?_ I was absolutely puzzled.

He was smiling stupidly at me, and then he landed in the crow's nest. "Catch me if you can!" he taunted. After that, he jumped down from that huge distance.

"Luffy!" I screamed. He was laughing as he was plummeting and holding onto his hat. I ran towards him, ready to catch or grab him, but... I didn't reach him in time.

First, I heard a _thud_. Then I closed my eyes, not wanting to see his broken body sprawled on the deck, and I turned away.

The next thing I realized was that I heard someone running away. And laughing. _Luffy?_ I wondered. I looked behind me and saw Luffy running away, playfully sticking his tongue out at me.

_But... but... he should be **dead**!_ I protested to myself, seeing but definitely not believing.

His tongue went into his mouth, and his face changed into one of confusion. Luffy's running changed into a jog, then a walk, and then he stopped altogether.

"Renor, what's wrong?" he asked, genuinely confused.

"A-are you hurt?" I asked, still stunned by the short ordeal.

"I'm fine. Why're you asking?"

"You j-just jumped from the crow's nest! You should be dead! Or... at least badly crippled. But there isn't a scratch on you!"

"Yeah, and?"

"And your arm stretched."

"Oh, yeah! That! I ate the Gum Gum fruit. I'm a rubberman," he explained, smiling again while stretching his mouth out to unreal proportions.

"O-okay," I shakily replied. _Right. I was just talking to Chopper about Devil Fruits,_ I recalled. _How did my mind wander from them so easily? I should've guessed that. I guess that food he swiped from the kitchen was stolen by stretching his arm in there and eating it. I guess I just didn't notice that. So is his thirty million berry bounty half-way due to his abilities? But... even if half of it _was_ from the Devil Fruit, what about the other half? Fifteen million is still a lot._

"So... are you going to keep playing tag or not?" he inquired, cocking his head to the side, reminding me of a confused dog.

I tried to suppress a laugh, but it ended up coming out like a strained raspberry. "Sure." I walked over to him and quickly added, "But you're It now!" after tagging him and then running off.

"Hey, that's not fair!" Luffy protested.

"Is, too!" I gleefully yelled back at him.

Suddenly, I was skidding to a halt to stop from running into Zolo, who was polishing his swords.

"Careful, there," he told me absentmindedly.

"Right, right. Sorry, Zolo. Hey, have you seen Usopp or Chopper?"

"Usopp's in the kitchen, and Chopper's on the opposite side of the ship we're on right now."

"'Kay, thanks!"

I ran up to the kitchen and I'd barely taken one noisy step in when there was a loud, tell-tale flurry of rustling, rushing, and a few crashes.

"Usopp, I'm not It. I just came up here to tell you that Luffy is."

"Thank you," I heard Usopp's voice say from somewhere to my right.

Jogging over to the other side of the ship, I saw Chopper, but he hadn't noticed me. "Hey, Chopper!" I shouted.

"Gyahh!" he shrieked. He tripped, and landed on the ground face first with an uncomfortable sounding _thump_. "What was that for?" he asked while wincing and rubbing his forehead.

"Sorry," I apologized. "Luffy's It," I said while bending down a bit and brushing off some of the dust on his pink hat.

"Okay, I got it," he gratefully replied with a slight smile. I kind of wanted to pick him up and snuggle him like a teddy bear, but I didn't get the chance.

"I found you, reindeer!" yelled a stampeding Luffy.

"Good luck, Chopper." I ran off, and when I turned around a few seconds later to check on the chase, Luffy was determinedly sprinting after Chopper, who was in the normal reindeer form that I had first seen him in.

This game of what seemed more like Hide-and-Go-Seek-Tag than just ordinary Tag went on for what seemed like the whole day. It actually only lasted until the late afternoon, which was when Luffy started complaining he was hungry.

* * *

_Hee... it's amazing how the characters in One Piece world can jump from such heights without a problem. _8) 


	6. Lunch, and then Some Realization

After a while, Luffy began to grow lazy and he just stretched his arms out to tag everyone whenever he was It, and that kind of killed the fun for all of us.

We kept trying to convince Sanji to make lunch just to stop Luffy from complaining, and he did, too, eventually. Still, I have a suspicion it was only because Nami asked for a snack and he thought that he should make something since he was going to be in the kitchen anyways.

For lunch, it was again the amazing food from Heaven. Or more like from Sanji. It still amazes me that a human can cook food that well. The food he cooked was seafood rice with all kinds of fish and other sea creatures that were cooked or boiled to perfection. And when I say perfection, I mean, _perfection_.

Several times, I caught Luffy trying to tug on my sweatshirt hood, but every time he did I swatted his hand away and he grumbled. (Yes, I _have_, as a matter of fact, figured out how to eat with my hood still on.)

When Luffy was on his sixths, I was on my thirds, and everyone else was either on their seconds or half-way done with their first serving, Nami asked me few questions. "Renor?" she started.

"Hm?" I looked up with my mouth full but still closed. I chewed a bit more and then swallowed what was in my mouth. "What is it, Nami?"

"Why exactly were you on our ship in the first place?"

"Well..." For a minute I considered sticking with my phony story, but then I decided that there would be no consequences even if I did tell the truth. Everyone, besides Luffy, was looking at me intently. Luffy had just finished his sixth serving, and he was poking Sanji over and over again, repeating the cook's name in an attempt to earn his attention.

"A few of you probably remember me from yesterday, right?" Usopp, Nami, and Chopper nodded. "Well, I knew I'd seen Luffy somewhere before, but when I found out that he was Wanted last night, I—"

_"__WILL YOU JUST GET IT YOURSELF, YOU *&-%__o_O!!"_

I heard Luffy yelp, and then there was a loud crash on the other side of the kitchen. Sanji was seething and panting with anger where Luffy had been just a second ago.

My eyes were wider than I think they've ever been, and the reason why was that Sanji had just kicked (Kicked? I thought that was kind of strange.) Luffy, and then captain had gone flying across the room.

Luffy was in the debris of the wall he'd been kicked into, and he started yelling at Sanji, even though he was completely unharmed.

"Oi! Sanji! What the heck was that for?!" Luffy was obviously ticked off.

"I told you that you can serve yourself! You're not a freakin' baby!"

Luffy and Sanji glared at each other, and Luffy began to slowly stand up. Once he was completely standing up, he stretched his arm over to his empty plate and then dashed over to the pot of rice on the counter.

He dumped the rest of it onto his plate and then dumped all into his mouth. It was gone in one gulp.

"What the *ell was _that_ for?!" bellowed Sanji, and then he kicked Luffy across the room again.

Everybody was staring at Sanji in astonishment, and Chopper had his front hooves covering up his gasping mouth.

The only person who didn't look that surprised was Nami.

"Sanji-kun?" she asked in a honeyed voice.

"What is it, Nami-san?" Sanji replied, instantly happier.

"Clean up that mess you and Luffy just made, alright?"

"Hai..." He went over to where Luffy was still against the wall, and then he commanded, "Move it," in an aggravated voice.

Once Sanji had turned his back to him, Luffy stalked away, but before he left the room, he pulled the sides of his mouth, stretching them, and stuck his tongue out. I stifled a laugh and just smiled to myself instead.

"So... I guess lunch is over?" I questioned. Without thinking, I continued, "I'll do the dishes."

I moaned right after I'd made the offer. Even though Luffy didn't really seem like a pirate, no self-respecting bounty hunter would ask to do a Wanted criminal's _dishes_!

"Well, Sanji and Zolo usually do the dishes," Nami began, "but Sanji," she pointed at the chef cleaning up the debris, "is busy. Zolo, would you mind the help?"

Zolo shook his head and shrugged passively. "Wait, you can wash dishes better than Luffy, right?" he urgently asked.

"Wait, wha—?" I inquired stupidly.

"He breaks every dish he tries to clean," he explained. "Do you wash them better than him?" Zolo repeated.

"I can wash them better than that; don't worry."

Zolo nodded, stood up, and placed his plate in the sink. Everyone followed suit, except for Sanji. He was almost done with his Nami-assigned job. Once I'd Sanji's plate in the sink for him, Zolo sat back on the bench and waited for Sanji to complete his assignment.

Once Sanji was finally done, he brushed his hands together, getting rid of the dust. He walked outside, and I could only guess what he was going to do. Probably try to 'woo' Nami with his 'manliness.'

Zolo started talking once the cook was gone. "Alright. We have to draw up some water so we can wash the dishes. I'll go and—"

"It's fine. I'll do it!" I blurted out, without thinking. _Again._

"Err... do you even know how?" Zolo asked, curious about my eagerness, it seemed.

"No."

"Well, there's something in the room under the stairs that has pedals that look like they could be from a bike. Just pedal for a bit and we should get enough water for the dishes."

"Alright, thanks."

I left the kitchen and then hopped over the railing, and I landed by the side of the stairs. As Zolo had said, there was a door there, and I opened it up. The machine that Zolo had described was also inside.

It had pedals, a seat that could've easily been from a bike or unicycle, and a handle coming out of the bar supporting the whole thing. _So the rider can hold onto it while pedaling, _ I assumed.

Definitely interesting.

Sitting down on the seat, I tried to get comfortable, and then I started pedaling. With the theory in mind that if I pedaled faster the water would be purified sooner, I set to work pedaling as fast and as hard as I could. The pedals were kind of hard to pedal at first, then they became easier, then harder. It was really like riding a bike up a series of hills each with varying heights, and it was pretty exhausting.

Something that smelled like burning rubber reached my nose, and I instantly thought of Luffy. _What's he doing right now?_ My mind began to wander, first to Luffy and then to my other voice beating myself up in my mind. **_Yeah, a bounty hunter _volunteering_ to clean a Wanted pirate's dishes. Wow. I didn't think you were _that_ much of an idiot._** I rolled my eyes, and thoughts like that troubled me for a few minutes, then they just went away like they'd never been there.

The reek of burning rubber grew stronger, and for what seemed like almost no reason at all, I saw Nami run up to me, then she took a flying tackle at me and pushed me off the machine.

When we landed on the ground by the water machine, she was panting heavily, her eyes flashing with anger. "What... were you doing?" she gasped angrily.

"Drawing water so I could do the dishes. What else?"

"Well, I was thinking that maybe you were trying to _sabotage_ the Merry Go."

"Sabotage? How?" Yeah, believe it or not, the idea had never even crossed my mind.

Nami pointed at the water machine. "You see the belt between the pedals?"

"Yeah."

"You don't see what you did to it, do you? Almost burned through it, and you don't even know!" She threw her arms up, exasperated. "We don't need you breaking our second one like Luffy broke the first."

After inspecting the belt for a moment, I asked, "So is that what the smell was?"

"Yes," Nami fumed. "You're supposed to keep a steady pace on that. Even if you go faster, the process of the water being purified doesn't."

"Oh. Sorry, sorry."

"You should have more than enough water for the dishes by now." In a defeated tone and while resting her forehead in one of her hands, she then said, "Just go and wash them."

She got off of me finally and went away. I stared after Nami for a bit and then shrugged.

Soon I was back in the kitchen. Washing the dishes didn't take that long at all with Zolo drying them. Also, Nami was right: the water ran smoothly the entire time I washed them.

Zolo put all the dishes away where they were supposed to go, and I was actually pretty impressed with what I had just done. I'd only told Zolo I didn't wash dishes like Luffy because I knew I could be careful. It wasn't like I'd ever _actually_ washed dishes before; the only kind of dishes I've used before were the empty plastic bags from my lunch meats, if those can even be called 'dishes'.

With all the dishes cleaned and put away, I went back outside. Curious about what the crew did during the afternoon, I walked around the ship. What had Nami called it? The Merry Go? Nice name for a ship but kind of unfitting for a pirate one.

Zolo had headed outside before me, and he was already taking a nap, snoring. Nami was finishing up her newspaper; Sanji was gawking at her, obviously in a state of bliss. Luffy was sitting on the Merry Go's masthead, gazing out at the ocean.

On the other side of the ship, Usopp was working on some stuff. He had several bottles of Tabasco sauce, and was talking to Chopper, who had a look of complete awe on his face.

I'd really never seen such a laid back crew before. If someone had started a fight like the one Luffy and Sanji had been in earlier, they'd still be arguing. Instead, I think that Luffy and Sanji had already forgotten about it and went to do whatever they wanted instead of grudging over the debate. I walked over to the railing that was closest to the masthead, and I just looked down at the water and watched it rush by as the ship kept sailing, right on course.

After a bit, Nami folded up her newspaper and set it down on her chair after sitting up. She stretched, and checked her Log Pose. "Sanji, can you turn us around? There's a storm brewing ahead."

Sanji and I both looked up at the sky, and neither of us saw anything wrong. Still, Sanji went up into the kitchen, and a minute later I felt the ship begin to turn around. He came back down once it was going in the opposite direction, and questioned, "Anything else, Nami-san?"

"No, not right now."

Sanji left to go and do something else. Once he was out of sight, Nami turned her head towards me. "You never got the chance to answer my question from lunch. So why are you here?"

"Well, it was actually because of... erm... Luffy. I... uh... saw him on a Wanted poster, and... I just wanted to learn more about him. And... that's the whole reason."

"Short reason, but it seems more complex than I can begin to think from your brief description. You saw the bounty he has, right?" I nodded. "I didn't think that someone would have the guts to actually stow away on the Merry Go just to learn more about Luffy after seeing all those zeroes on his bounty." She chuckled quietly. "And what about you getting home? The last island we stopped at was your home island, right? The Log Pose can't lead us backwards; do you have an Eternal one?"

Again, I beat myself up mentally, realizing another one of my fatal mistakes. I gave her the dumb, yet honest truth: "I forgot it."


	7. When the Storm Strikes

"Forgot it? You _forgot_ your only way home?" Nami asked disbelievingly.

"Uh-huh. Geez, I'm such an idiot!" I slammed my head onto the railing I'd just been leaning on and then crumpled to the floor.

"Um... are you okay, Renor?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, Nami. Geez. I can't believe I forgot it, though!"

"I'm sure there's more than one Eternal Pose to your island. What's it called?"

"Wabret Island." I remembered the three kids, and then I scoffed. "More like 'Wet _Rat _Island.'"

The next thing I thought about was my backpack. I'd left it behind in the storage room. "Hey, Nami, would you mind if I went to get my backpack? If there's anything else you want to ask me, I'll be right back in a minute."

Nami shook her head. "Just watch out for that storm. Be ready to help out if we need it; the boys usually do a good job on handling everything themselves, though."

"Alright." I headed back down into the storage room that was now packed with all of the supplies I'd seen everyone carrying earlier that morning.

I had to search though the room for a bit and move around a few things before I found my backpack. Taking special care to not break or ruin any of the supplies, it took me a bit longer getting my backpack than it probably could have.

A loud clinking and jangling noise erupted from my backpack when I picked it up; I'd scraped it and pulled it through a small wedge between the wall and boxes it was stuck in between. The money I had brought was loudly hitting into and sliding past each other in the pack, also resulting in slight grinding sounds.

I put it on my back, and after a second, a question formed in my mind: _Where will I spend the night on this ship? Not outside... it'd get too cold... I'm not good with the cold._

Suddenly, Nami burst into the room. The forcefully opened door swung open quickly and slammed into the wall it was hinged to.

"Where is it? I heard money! You weren't messing with my treasure, were you?" she glared.

"No. I was just getting my backpack, like I told you a bit ago."

"Then what was that I heard?" she asked, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"_My_ money. I'm sure you're not the only one on this ship with money." Nami's eyes started to wander and look at the ceiling.

"Well... everyone's money on this ship is mine; I'm the money keeper." She then sniffed, sounding like a snob. "So, how much money do you have?" she greedily added.

"500,000 berries. Why?"

"F-f-five... h-_hundred _thousand?"

"Yeah," I carried on. I don't have a boat of my own, so whenever I wanted a ride home or away, I had to pay the person who brought me around with a large sum of money. Sometimes, I still had to pay them more since their ship got stuck in one of the Grand Line's infamous storms. Besides, I also get hungry pretty easy, so I have to pay for food.

"Well, as I said, I _am_ the money keeper," Nami repeated.

"No! This is the only money I have left from my hundred million stash!" Right after I'd said that last sentence, I bitterly wished that I could just swallow it back down my throat.

The next thing that happened was a numbing pain flashed over my head. I heavily winced, and when I reopened my eyes, I saw Nami's fist in front of my face, clenched. Her teeth were grinding together in an angry grimace. My best guess was that she'd just whacked me across my head.

"_Hundred_... million? And you left all of that behind? Don't tell me you _forgot _it like you _forgot_ your Log Pose."

I nodded weakly. 500,000 was the normal amount I brought with me; I didn't see what Nami was making such a big deal over. Maybe it would've been better if I'd told her I'd only _left_ it on purpose... No, that wouln't've changed anything.

Nami was about to whack me again when the boat started to violently rock side to side. Boxes and barrels began to slide around in the room with the boat's movements, and then I remembered what was going on: "The storm!" I yelled while trying to still keep my balance.

Nami gasped and dashed outside.

I took my backpack off quickly, and it landed with a loud, metallic _crash_ on the floor. When I followed Nami outside and closed the door behind me, I saw that the sky had drastically changed in the short time I'd been inside.

The sky was grey, and dark foreboding clouds were swirling around this gi_normous*_ cyclone in the distance. I mean, _huge_! The Merry Go was too far away from the main part of the storm to get the full brunt of it, yet it seemed like it was, and the wind and waves were still terrible and strong. Rain was pouring onto the ship, soaking every bit of it, but the waves were dumping even more water onto it than the rain.

Zolo, Sanji, Luffy, and even Usopp, were all pulling, tugging, and tying the important ropes wherever they could to keep everything steady.

There was a large, broad shouldered, and strong looking figure on the beam supporting the main sail and crow's nest. He was trying to get all the ropes he could to tie the sail to the beam. Since Chopper had mentioned his 'human' form and I hadn't seen anyone else on the ship, I guessed that was him. (His pink hat was also a giveaway. He had to constantly grab it when it started to get blown away by the harsh winds.)

My hood wasn't a problem since the wind was blowing against my back, not against my face trying to pull it off.

It seemed like everyone was doing fine with their job, and Chopper almost had all the ropes tied up, when...

The very last one slipped out of his hand. He almost leaped after the end of it, and I let out a scared gasp. He caught himself before he made the fatal mistake, luckily, and he tried to pull it back in, but it was too slippery and he couldn't keep a decent grasp on it.

I ran after the rope that was now being blown in the wind, and Zolo noticed what had happened around the same time as me. He quickly finished tying the ropes he was working with, and then he tore after the rope Chopper had accidentally let go of as fast as he could. Zolo gave a powerful leap and managed to catch it.

Zolo landed on his feet, but then he skid on the slippery floor and collapsed onto his stomach to stop from being tipped over the edge of the Merry Go. It seemed like the wind was trying its hardest to just specifically push Zolo off the side, and he was sliding slowly forward. I grabbed the end rope he was holding onto and ended up on my stomach also.

The wind picked up, and both of us slid forward again. I looked up at Chopper, worried about him, and saw that he was in his smaller form again, precariously climbing down from the long beam to help Nami and Usopp. He yelled, "Don't worry; I'm coming!" to reassure them, but his words were almost completely blown away by the howling wind.

Luffy had seen the 'excitement' Zolo and I were caught up in, and he rushed over to join the chain of people on their stomachs. The only reason I was able to tell that Luffy just wanted to join the 'fun' was because of his silly grin which was completely oblivious to everything around him.

He grabbed onto my feet, and then he said, "Oi, Renor, you've got funny feet," referring to the T. Rex-like coverings on my feet, smiling.

"They're boots."

"No, no. I think they're feet."

"They're... _boots_," I insisted. I let out a grunt trying to hold onto the rope that was attempting to slip out of my grasp.

Luffy then stood up, already bored with our circular conversation, and tugged me onto my feet. I did the same to Zolo, letting go of the rope for as brief a moment as possible. Right after Zolo had regained his footing, I seized the rope again.

With just as much warning as the storm had given about its start, it stopped. The winds died down almost instantaneously, the rain stopped, the black clouds started to depart, and the waves subsided.

Just like that.

My hands were still clenching the rope and Zolo's were too, and then we both let our legs give out from under us. Zolo landed on his knees, breathing heavily, while I leaned against the nearest rail instead, and did my panting there.

Luffy looked at both of us, then shrugged and stepped away. I looked around a bit to see how everyone else looked after coping with the storm.

Sanji was against the mast, leaning down with his hands resting on his knees.

Usopp and Nami were both bent over the rails they'd been working by, sides heaving, and Chopper was sitting on the rail with his feet dangling out below him.

"Phew! That sure was a tough storm, huh?" I asked in a carefree voice, trying to lighten the atmosphere a bit.

Everyone but Luffy and Chopper glared at me. We were all sopping wet, and just by the look they were giving me, they had the feeling I hadn't done enough to help out.

Chopper nodded, tongue sticking out in his exhaustion, and Luffy smiled and answered, "Haha! Yeah! Good thing we didn't get stuck in the uh... main... wind area... of that funnel thing, huh?" He walked back up to me and gently tugged the rope out of my hands, and Zolo released his grip so Luffy could take it.

Luffy stretched his arm up to Chopper, and then he said, "Tie this back wherever it needs to be, okay?" Chopper nodded again and he went to work doing what his captain had just told him to do.

Luffy's stomach then growled. I looked at him incredulously, thinking, _But we pretty much just ate! How can you be hungry already?_

"Sanji-iii-ii-i... I'm hungry."

"You just ate that entire pot of rice! What made you think I'd make more for you?"

"But I'm _hungry_," Luffy moaned.

"Deal with it until dinner."

Luffy went up to Sanji and fell onto his knees. He started tugging on Sanji's shirt. "Please."

"No."

_"Please."_

_"No."_

"PLEASE."

"NO!"

Sanji gave Luffy a forceful shove with his foot and strode off in a huff.

All Luffy did after that was flop onto his back and let out a moan.

Everyone, besides Sanji, who was walking over to Nami, looked at Luffy with disbelief written all over their face.

I looked at Zolo and then asked, "Is Luffy always like that?"

"Not usually. He normally gets into more trouble at night trying to sneak midnight snacks than in the afternoon."

"Really? Doesn't he eat enough during the day?"

Zolo chuckled a bit, and then he stood up. "Well, more than enough food is never enough for Luffy." He took off his white shirt and wrung it out. I got a jolt when I saw how strong he was; good thing I didn't get into that fight earlier that morning with him. He also had a long, diagonal, scar running across his whole chest; I could only imagine how he got it.

Even though the shirt wasn't completely dry after wringing it out several times, he put the now slightly wrinkled shirt back on.

When Sanji reached Nami, she told him something and he walked off into the storage room. Chopper, hearing what she had told Sanji, also disappeared into the room. Zolo looked around, and apparently processed what was going on, then he followed them.

Luffy had been the first into the room, with Usopp following him. Nami walked up to me and asked, "Can you help mop up the deck? You don't need to get the mops themselves wet, though; the deck will do that itself. All of this water isn't good for the ship."

I acknowledged her with a curt nod, and strolled off to look for a mop. My first guess was that they were in the storage room, and that had been the reason why everyone had disappeared into there.

When I reached the door into the room and I reached out to grab the handle, the door swung open when my hand was still inches away from it.

Involuntarily, I jumped backwards, startled. Sanji, Luffy, and Usopp all walked out carrying a mop, and then Zolo followed them, carrying three. He had two in one of his hands and one in the other.

Peeking into the room, I saw that Chopper was climbing and hopping over the barrels and boxes trying to most likely find a mop for himself. He was very small in his normal man-reindeer form, and all the boxes at my waist were practically at the top of his head, with his antlers barely peeping above them.

"Hey, Chopper, are you looking for a mop?"

"M-hmm," he muttered.

"Need help?"

"Yes!" he gratefully answered.

I started helping him with his search, but I only found one other mop, and I gladly offered to do his mopping for him. He declined my offer, being the cute yet generous reindeer he was, and he headed outside and started doing his important task.

Instead of mopping, I ended up looking for areas on the inside of the Merry Go where water had seeped in. I found a couple, and I had to board them up. The ship was already pretty beat up, so adding a few boards here and there didn't really mess up anything. Usopp helped me a bit when he was done with his share of mopping on deck.

After I'd come back up from the lower areas of the ship, I saw everyone finishing up mopping. Watching Zolo was the most entertaining part, I have to say. He had one of his three mops in his mouth and the two others in his hands, and he'd managed to put every single one of them to good use.

Once everyone had put their mops back, the sun had started to set. _A whole day, huh? It's been more than a whole day since I first really saw Luffy, and yet... I already know so much about him. So much can happen in a day_.

When Luffy first noticed that the sun was setting, he started pestering Sanji about dinner again, and Sanji warned him not to bother him anymore, or else it would mean no dinner. Luffy complied, and he was rather quiet for a while since whenever he opened his mouth to bother Sanji, he was shot a warning glare.

Soon enough, Sanji had gone up into the kitchen, and it didn't take long for everyone to know that he was cooking dinner; the luscious scent coming from the kitchen wasn't hard to notice. My main hope for the meal was that Sanji and Luffy wouldn't get into such a huge argument like they had at lunch.

* * *

_***gi·nor·mous**_

_Pronunciation: \jī-ˈnȯr-məs\_

_Function: __adjective_

_Etymology: __gigantic + e__normous_

_("Believe it!" ~famous quote stolen directly from Naruto~)_

_And, uh... there's really no meaning that I know of behind 'Wabret.' It was just a bunch of random letters I ended up typing up. xD __So, ah, reviews, anyone? -innocent smile- (You know you don't need an account to review...)  
_

_**Edit 1/22/'10: **I just realized that Zolo woke up rather easily for this storm. x) -remembering entrance in Grand Line- And how come there are less arguments between Luffy and Sanji than Zolo and Sanji...? Sorry. Just a random thought. :P_


	8. Dinner and Money

It was impossible for me to tell what Sanji was cooking, but I was sure it would be delicious all the same. (It _smelled_ delicious, so it'd have to _taste_ just as good, right?)

Luffy was getting all worked up knowing that dinner would be ready in just minutes, and several times I had to remind him that dinner wouldn't be fun if he didn't have any. He wanted to go and start ordering Sanji to hurry up almost the entire time, and my reminders always shut him up. Even if it only was for thirty seconds. Also, because of Luffy's short attention span, I had to change the wording of my reminder-excuse every time I tried to remind him, and it started to become increasingly difficult.

Thankfully, Sanji was done a second before I had to give Luffy a seventh excuse for him not to bother his cook. I was beginning to run out of ideas!

"Dinner's ready, you morons!" Sanji yelled. In a much more enthusiastic voice, he added, "Nami-_swaaan!_ Dinner!"

Luffy bounded up the stairs and into the kitchen after the dinner call. He reached the kitchen before Sanji'd even had a chance to go back in. Then I heard Luffy begin to noisily... slurp his food? _That's_ what it was! Soup! Sanji had been preparing soup!

I saw Sanji look into the kitchen and his face betrayed his frustration, but he bit his lip and stomped in. Within a minute or so, I was in the kitchen and everyone else was, too. When I looked at the counter where Sanji sets the extra food, I saw that there were two pots filled to the brim with soup and then the third one was about half-way full. _Well, best be prepared to feed Luffy, I guess._

All the guys just had their bowls with the soup, but Nami and I had the bowls along with a spoon set down next to them.

Luffy was loudly finishing off what I suspected what was at least his second serving, and he then walked over to the half-filled pot and carefully picked up the pot and poured, actually, I was kind of surprised that he didn't spill any, the soup into his bowl until it was filled about a centimeter to the top. _He really didn't spill anything!_ Hastily, he set the pot back down and blew on his hands; the pots must've still been pretty hot since Sanji had barely just finished the soup.

The soup in my bowl had some spices lying at the bottom and they added the perfect type and amount of flavor. Honestly, I just ignored the spoon that Sanji had so 'thoughtfully' put on the table for me, but just drinking it is so much faster; I could have more of the soup that way!

Again, Luffy had several servings and I had about half as much as him, while everyone else had finished off even less than me.

A few minutes into the meal, Zolo started questioning me. He hadn't heard my conversation with Nami before the storm, (since he'd been sleeping) so I had to repeat my actual reasons for being on the Merry Go.

When everyone around the table had heard that I'd come because of Luffy, and they also learned the fact that I _did_ know what his bounty was, everybody, save Nami and Luffy, yelled at me, "_Are you stupid?!_" The thing is, I didn't (and don't) plan on telling them that I was a bounty hunter; there are some things that can stay ignored. Besides, I wasn't going to collect Luffy's bounty, and I hadn't even come after him as a bounty hunter looking for the price on his head; there was no need to upset everyone and make them lose the trust that I'd already sorta built up with them.

Zolo shook his head and Sanji had an "Are you kidding me?" face. Chopper's mouth was super wide and I could imagine it dropping to the floor. Usopp shared the same expression as the reindeer, but then it changed to one of superiority.

"I'm sure you saw me in that picture then, too, correct?" His voice sounded like a king talking to one of his subjects.

"No," was my curt, yet completely truthful, answer.

Expression unchanged, Usopp fell backwards off of the bench and onto the floor.

"Err... Usopp, are you okay?" I asked, standing up a bit to get a better look at him. Seriously, that weird reaction kind of made me worry.

"Mmff." His face now looked embarrassed, as if he was an idiot.

"I'll... um... take that as a 'yes' then." I sat back down.

Sanji and Luffy both began laughing at Usopp lying on his back. Nami shook her head, and Zolo was smiling with amusement. It seemed as if Chopper didn't know what to think. Nami suddenly perked up. "Sanji?" He stopped laughing and looked at her, most likely (and hopefully _just_) wondering what Nami wanted.

"Will you go into the storage room and bring Renor's backpack up here? There's something I want to see."

Sanji looked at me unsurely, for approval or something, I think, and my eyes widened. I knew that Nami just wanted my money. Of course, Sanji couldn't see my eyes, so he just shrugged and walked out.

Glaring at Nami didn't change anything, and I knew that it wouldn't, but I just had to. There was this sort of anger and annoyance welling up inside me, but it wasn't like I was going to do anything to her besides my pointless glare.

Nami checked the Log Pose around her wrist, and then she pointed out that the ship was heading the wrong way. Of course the ship had been turned back around after the storm earlier, but the Grand Line turns every ship on it in the opposite direction at least once a day anyways.

Usopp stood up off the floor and nodded to show that he'd go and change the Merry Go's direction. He went over to a wooden plank sticking out of the floor that had a ram's head on it; almost matching the masthead. The plank of wood was behind the table. Usopp grabbed the ram's head and pulled it to the left. The ship began to slowly turn, and then it finally was heading in the opposite direction.

Walking back over to his spot on the bench, Usopp plopped back down where he had originally sat. He drank the rest of his soup, but took special care not to look at me.

I finished off my next bowl of soup and spooned another serving for me using the ladle sticking out of the almost empty second pot. When I sat back down, I realized that Luffy had lost interest in my sweatshirt, and he was now staring under the table at my feet coverings while chugging his dinner.

Sanji finally arrived back in the room, holding my backpack, after I'd noticed Luffy's change of interest.

"This is heavier than I thought it would be," Sanji quietly muttered. Zolo looked at him with a challenging smirk, and then the cook included a quick, "Not that it _is_."

The blond looked at Nami and inquired, "Where do you want me to put this?"

"Just in the middle of the table."

"Hai..."

After Sanji'd put my backpack on the table, Nami commanded, "Everyone, finished your soup before I open this. Trust me; we don't want any spit-takes."

Everyone obeyed except for me. "Nami! I should open it, if anyone!" I burst out. "That's my backpack, and _my_ money you want. _I_ earned it, not you!" At my sudden shout, Luffy spat all of the soup in his mouth (which was practically the entire bowl) out at Nami across the table. I laughed at Nami, and Luffy was looking at Sanji with huge eyes; Sanji looked ready to burst with anger. His one visible eye was volleying between his captain and me, mouth open, and obviously ready to begin a lecture.

Then the information I'd just said was processed. He closed his mouth and now looked confused.

"Fine, you can open it," the dripping Nami said in a growling voice.

"Nami, napkin?" Sanji hesitantly offered, holding out one.

"Sure, thanks," she muttered. She grabbed it and wiped her soup drenched face clean.

Sighing, I opened my backpack. When the zipper reached the other side and my backpack was completely open, money poured out: silver, bronze, and gold coins spread out across the table in a heap, while the green berry papers rustled with their introduction to the ship.

All at once everyone's eyes, especially Nami's, widened. The glow from the light above the table radiated off the coins and made them shine, making it seem much more dazzling than it really was. (My dental items were in a different pocket.)

"Give it," Nami demanded in a trance.

"No," I refused.

"_Now_."

"NO. This is _my_ money, got that?" I rudely declined, up in her face.

Nami backed off and shuddered. She probably thought it was creepy how my face just seemed like it was a black, gaping emptiness under my sweatshirt, hidden the way it was.

"Fine. But you know what? The only reason it's not mine is because you're not part of the crew; you're just along for the ride." She looked at Luffy and away again; so quickly, I don't think anyone but me noticed. Almost inaudibly and completely silently, she added, "For now."

_If she's thinking I'll join the crew, she's dead wrong,_ I thought. _I'm just going to find an Eternal Pose and go back home._

_**And then do what?**_ the voice in my head quietly questioned.

A scented tendril of smoke from someone's soup swam through the air and by my nose. Even though it smelled great, I wasn't hungry anymore. Also, I suddenly realized that I was tired. I hadn't had good sleep for a few days, so I decided it was time for bed. Yawning, I asked, "Where should I sleep for the night?"

The guys looked at each other dumbly, as if saying, _Hey, she's got a point._

"Oh! You can sleep in our room, Renor!" Luffy shouted.

"No, thanks. That doesn't sound like a very good idea."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm a girl, and—"

"YOU'RE A GIRL?!" Luffy exclaimed.

The only reply everyone, including me, gave Luffy was a blank, sarcastic stare.

"Oh. Well, you can sleep with Nami then, I guess," Luffy suggested.

I let out a sigh that was supposed to seem obvious and show the point that I wasn't fond of the idea. Unfortunately, Luffy's level of IQ blinded him to that fact.

"Yosh! It's settled then! Renor sleeps in Nami's room," Luffy stated as if that settled the entire issue.

Muttering slightly to myself, I pushed my money back into my backpack but kept one 100 berry coin out and flicked it at Nami. "Knock yourself out," I sarcastically remarked.

She glared, and replied with an answer coated with just as much sarcasm: "Thanks."

I zipped up my backpack and picked it up in one of my hands. The next thing I did was head off to Nami's room so I could sleep. Right before I'd left the kitchen, though, I noticed that I'd almost overlooked an important fact. "Where's Nami's bedroom?" I requested like some kind of idiot.

Sanji was the one to answer. (Of course.) "There's a hatch in the storage room; just open it up and go down the flight of stairs."

"Oh, and Renor?" Nami began.

"Hm?" was my bleary reply.

"You can sleep on the couch. You'll probably find it rather comfortable." All traces of greed had disappeared from her voice, and she sounded like I was actually a welcome guest now.

I just nodded absentmindedly and walked away.

Once I was back in the storage room, for what felt like the millionth time that day (while it was only the second or third), I looked around the room and found the hatch almost instantly once I'd moved some boxes, barrels, and sacks to the side. Wondering how I hadn't noticed it before, I sleepily stumbled down the stairs. For a bit, I was just blindly groping around the room and along the walls looking for a light switch. It took a bit of time, but I found it.

When the light turned on, I was able to see what Nami's room really was like. It was pretty nice; very cozy looking. There was a couch against one wall and Nami's bed against another. Several bookshelves were lined up against another wall. Most of the books in them were about geography, but there were a few that looked like they were for 'just for fun' reading, too.

It took me a minute to memorize the layout of the room. The thing is, it's very hard to navigate around a room in the dark if the person trying to move about doesn't know the place that well. Stumbling and breaking something would be plain stupid, so I had to know where I was relative to everything else before I started moving again.

I turned off the light again, getting the room ready for my sleep. The couch was extremely easy to find. I collapsed on it when I knew for sure it was my destination.

Comfortably spreading across it, again, for what seemed like too many times to feel right, I felt like I was in Heaven. Yeah, sure I had a cushy sleeping bag, but it was placed on really hard concrete in that alley. Anyone who's slept in a sleeping bag before knows that, eventually, it becomes only as comfortable as the ground under it.

Sleeping on a couch after years of being in a sleeping bag makes it seem just all the more inviting. Right before I fell asleep, I heard someone quietly walk down the stairs. "Good night, Renor," Nami's voice whispered.

I murmured to acknowledge her, and I had one more thought before completely conking out: _I'll just brush my teeth after breakfast tomorrow._


	9. On the Creepy Island

_Please, read every detail of this one. It gets really serious later on, and you _need_ to read some of the grotesque details to understand everyone's reactions. I wasn't really planning on submitting something like this on Halloween, (Wow... I planned this chapter like a month ago... and on Halloween? Awesome!!) and if you read it the day it's submitted, chances are, you'll appreciate it a bit more. It's seems kind of... er... 'Halloween-ish'. Anyways, enjoy! And..._

_**Happy Halloween! :D** _

* * *

The sound that woke me up was Nami heading up the almost silent, yet still barely creaking, stairs. I'd slept with my backpack on, and when I sat up, it didn't feel any lighter, so my trust in Nami increased a bit more from what it had been last night.

A faint beam of light made its way into the room and helped my eyes adjust before I freaked out from forgetting where I was. I'm pretty sure that almost everyone has done that at least once.

I sat up on the couch I'd been sleeping on and cracked my sore neck. _Must've slept in a cruddy position,_ I thought. Even though I trusted Nami more, I still wasn't taking any chances, so I hid my pack under one of the couch cushions and made sure there weren't any bulges that gave it away.

After I followed Nami onto the deck, I saw that it was still pretty dark and was the very early morning. The sun was just starting to peek over the horizon, but it wasn't quite far up enough to shed much light on anything.

Almost everyone was already up, but I didn't see Luffy and Zolo immediately. There was a clinking-grinding noise coming from the other side of the ship, and anyone could recognize it as an anchor being raised.

Zolo was crouching on the other side of the ship, working with the anchor a bit. Once he was able to reach it, Zolo grabbed the anchor and hooked it where I'd climbed onto the ship the other day._ They lay anchor during the night? What strange pirates._

There was a room that was about twenty or so feet away and almost right in front of me, and then Luffy ran out of it. He almost started to bother Sanji, but then he seemed to contemplate the consequences and decided against it.

Next, he saw me. "Oi, Renor! Good morning!" was his grinned greeting.

"Hey, Luffy. How ya doing?"

"Great! When do you think we're going to reach the next island?"

"Pfft! How should I know? Hopefully soon, right?"

"Ahahahaha! You got that right!" Luffy agreed. "Hey, uh… do you want to go and ask Nami? She should know."

Giving Luffy a resigned nod, we both strolled off and went after Nami. Luffy was the first to try and grab her attention.

"Naaaaaaaaaammmiiiiii!" he moaned. "When're we going to get to the next island?"

"Luffy," she sighed, "we only just stopped at the last one yesterday; don't think that we're gonna reach another one today."

"Alright, fine. So… Are we there yet?"

"No! Just wait, okay?" Nami impatiently commanded.

Her captain just rolled his eyes and strolled off. I looked at Nami inquiringly, and her answer to my shrouded face was, "We are _not_ there yet."

I sighed and followed Luffy. He was walking over to the masthead, and once he reached it, he walked onto the ram's head and sat down, staring out over the dark ocean.

The Merry Go was beginning to be brightened a bit by the sun that was still attempting to wake up. The cheery colors that were being shined onto the ship were very nice, and I was starting to admire the long shadows and different colors of the light. Out of nowhere, for no reason, a thick blanket of fog descended on the ship. It snuffed the light of the sun, and all the shadows and colors were gone, replaced by white. Questioning murmurs and whispers rose from Luffy's crew.

What was going to be a bright morning had quickly changed into a never ending sea of white. Nami walked over to me and asked, "Where'd all the fog come from?"

I gave her the same answer I'd given Luffy earlier: "How should I know?"

Nami gave me a slight nod, when Usopp yelled out, "Oi! Land!"

"Usopp," Nami started saying, obviously not in the mood, "we all know that—"

**Thwam!**

The Merry Go gave a violent jolt and shudder, and everyone fought to keep their balance. Luffy ended up dangling from his chair, and he almost fell off the masthead and into the ocean, but he managed to keep a strong grip that prevented that from happening. He climbed back on and then headed over to where Nami and I were standing.

"Wha—?" asked Nami, confused.

"Told you so," Usopp declared in a matter-of-fact-tone. "Wait, an island? Discovered in the fog? A mysterious fog that came out of nowhere?

"Oh… my 'Don't-go-on-this-island Disease' is acting up. The first symptom is—" There was a _thud_ and I looked behind me to see Usopp lying on the floor. "—weak knees. Well, will you look at that? I can't go on the island."

"Are there going to be monsters?" Chopper squeaked.

"Horrible ones," Usopp growled in a voice that was meant to terrify poor Chopper.

"Really?" the little reindeer gasped.

"Of course. Have I ever lied to you?"

I stared at Usopp; just by the way he'd said that sentence, I guessed that was almost a lie in itself.

Chopper obediently shook his head, and Zolo commanded, "Come on, you scaredy cats. Even if there _is_ a monster, we'll just—"

"Have Sanji cook it up!" Luffy yelled, delighted.

Zolo sighed. "If that's what our captain will want, then sure."

Luffy hopped off the Merry Go and onto the shore of the island. Only it didn't actually seem like a 'shore'; the whole place seemed more like a huge slab of grey rock than anything. "Come on, guys! You're all so slow! I wanna go and have an adventure!"

He ran off into the fog and everyone immediately lost sight of him.

When Luffy disappeared, a low, menacing growl emanated from the island.

"Eep!" Usopp and Chopper both shrieked. Chopper leapt into his frightened friend's arms* and they stared into the fog, shaking. A _chak_ was heard as Zolo grabbed one of his swords, readying it in case of a fight. Sanji tensed up, also foreseeing a fight. Nami wielded a red, wooden staff,• ready to fight if she needed to. I stared into the fog, curious, but still wary, about what was coming after the ship.

An instant later Luffy was weakly walking back into sight. "Sanji… I need breakfast. My tummy's being loud."

Without meaning to, I fell to the floor and started laughing. Everyone had been so uptight, and what had it been? A hungry Luffy. _Ooohh… scary_. Alright, so maybe that _could_ be scary, but only for someone's wallet at a restaurant. (To use a name, _Nami's_ wallet at a restaurant.)

Sanji shook his head and headed off into the kitchen. Luffy looked up at the ship, impatiently waiting for his food.

"Luffy," I heard Sanji's voice say, "come on up here. You want breakfast, right?"

"You bet I do!" Luffy stretched one of his arms up and grabbed the masthead then flung himself onto the ship. He darted into the kitchen, and everyone ended up following him.

In the kitchen, Sanji was preparing eggs and rice. Chopper was in his human form, helping set out the silverware and plates. Zolo was drawing water for the rest of the day, and everyone else was just sitting around the table on the benches, waiting for their food. There was little conversation. I think that everyone was probably wondering about the fog outside, but not worrying about it. Except for Usopp and Nami. Usopp seemed like he was the only one who was actually worried, but Nami seemed kind of uptight also.

Sanji served up the rice and eggs, and again, everything was perfect. Zolo walked back into the room to join everyone for breakfast not long after. The eggs were mixed in with the rice in just the right amount, and it was _so_ good. _The perfect breakfast before going on an adventure_, I joyfully thought.

I had several servings before finally feeling content.

When everyone had finished, Luffy still demanded more food from Sanji: a pirate lunch box for his trip on the island. Setting my plate and silverware into the sink to be washed later, I walked off to brush my teeth like I had promised myself last night. Before long, I was back up and Luffy was waiting impatiently for me with a backpack of his own. I didn't need anything from my backpack, so I just left it; I had my own weapon all ready in case I needed it.

Zolo and Sanji were both down on the island getting each other worked into a frenzy about some stupid competition or another. They tromped off away from each other angrily yelling about 'the most tons of meat brought back.'

Chopper, who was back in his short man-reindeer form, swallowed, and then bravely offered to Luffy and me, "I-I'll come with you, if you'd like…"

"Sure!" Luffy told him. "It'd be cool to have you around!" Chopper smiled a little smile at his captain and nodded. He lifted up a hatch in the floor which led to his bedroom and quickly came back out carrying a navy-blue backpack with an 'X' on it that was similar to his hat.

Before they left, however, my curiosity got the better of me and I jumped off the ship and landed on the stony island, ready to set off.

The next one down was the Merry Go's captain and then Chopper. All three of us were almost out of complete sight of the ship smothered by fog, when a unanimous, "O-oi! Wait for me!" came from Usopp and Nami's silhouettes. They looked at each other, and then they climbed down a ladder they'd just unraveled down the side of the ship.

Luffy laughed, and then he joked, "Remembering Little Garden?" I'd heard the name before, (was it an island?) but I didn't really know much about what he was talking about, so I just shrugged off his little comment.

We continued walking, and every minute or so Nami checked her Log Pose. Every time she did, she looked increasingly wary of the surrounding island. Luffy didn't seem bothered in the least by anything and I didn't feel as if there was any need to be worried.

Chopper was making sure he was staying close to Luffy, and Usopp was trying to stay near Luffy and me also.

After fifteen minutes or so of this uneventful walk, I finally realized what was so strange about the island: there was nothing, absolutely nothing, on it. There was only us, and then Zolo and Sanji who were somewhere. I hadn't thought about it that much since the fog obliterated sight to only a few feet away, so I'd assumed there was some other stuff at first, but after walking for long enough we hadn't run into anything. There was only the grey rock that just kept going and going.**

I'm guessing about ten more minutes passed when Nami finally put her worries into words. "I… don't really feel comfortable about this island…" she choked.

I kidded around with her and said, "And _now_ you say that?"

"I'm serious. The Log Pose was never pointing near this island! If anything, it's pointing almost the exact opposite way!"

"Maybe this island's got a funny electrical field," I suggested.

Luffy peered over at Nami's Pose and commented, "That's weird." He started poking it and Nami viciously pulled her wrist away from him and ended up accidentally elbowing nervous Usopp in the stomach.

He let out a heavy sounding, "_Oof!_" and he doubled over.

Chopper yelled, "Are you okay, Usopp?!"

Nami was apologizing over and over again.

All Luffy had to say about the whole thing was, "Oops."

I had no idea what to do, but I was still going to try and do something.

"C'mon, guys. We can't—"

My voice trailed off. I was looking behind Usopp, and I saw something strange. I saw _something_. It wasn't nothing like everything else on this island, it was… something. Everyone looked at me quizzically, and I walked off slowly, towards the something I saw. There was absolutely nothing I could make out of the something where I had been, so I had to get closer.

Its shadow in the fog made it look like a tall needle, at least ten feet high, sticking out of the ground, which was weird, because the ground was rock. There was also something hanging off the top of the strange needle that sent shivers down my spine.

When I got close enough, I gulped and stiffened. "Renor, what'd you—" Usopp started, but he didn't finish his sentence because he saw what I saw.

It _was_ a needle sticking out of the ground, a huge _sewing _needle. A piece of twine was looped through the hole at the top, and there was a small cat hanging out of the noose that was tied at the end of the yarn; the poor animal looked like a hung criminal.

Nami and Chopper walked up, saw it, and they froze, too. The only person who didn't understand the huge deal was Luffy. "Hey, what's this needle there for?" he stupidly inquired.

We all looked at him blankly, but then I turned back to the dead animal and shivered again. _What did that? A person almost for sure didn't… _Looking to the right, I saw that there was an entire row of these needles and animals as the victims. The needles were all spread out evenly, and the corpses and types of animals were all varying compared to each other.

I walked down the grotesque gallery, and something strange was going on with each animal farther down the row. It made me feel like I was looking at a time lapse. The animal after the cat was a bird, and it was a pale white. It didn't seem like a natural white, though; it was almost as if the animal was bleached.

The next was a rat, which was even whiter than the bird. There was a raccoon after the rat, and the rings on its tail and the markings around its eyes were barely visible, and the grey on its fur was a pure white.

A horse was the next victim. I was wondering grimly where the monster that did this had found its victims, and why and how this had happened to them. The horse was whiter than the whitest snow I could imagine and its eyes were hollowed out. Nothing was there.

With its wings spread out like it was going to soar back into the sky, a hawk was after the horse and just as white, but its skeleton was visible under its plumage. The gaping eyes were also noticeable, but something that made me gasp and almost puke was its beak.

Its beak was pierced through with stitches and had been sewed together tightly, with its lower part of its beak harshly stuck into the upper part.

The last prey of the unknown monster was horrible, and I gave a choked gasp when I reached it.

The last in the row was a person. A person that looked almost like a skeleton, but the skin was still stuck on the corpse. The mouth was sewn together like the hawk's beak, and the eyes were completely empty. They gave a glimpse into a hollowed out skull, a skull which was utterly void of anything. The white clothes were crudely sewn into the beyond pale skin of the poor wretch.

I had nothing to do there but collapse. I _couldn't _do anything. I felt just as hollow as the human body in front of me, ready to faint and queasy. When I looked around the person and behind it, there were at least ten more human corpses following the first one in a neat, organized row.

Usopp, Nami, and Chopper all reached this one at about the same time as each other, and they all had the same reaction as me. I_'_m pretty sure that Usopp really did faint.

Luffy was walking by all of the corpses slowly, carefully inspecting them each, as if he were in some sort of art museum. I wished I could strangle some sense into him and point out what had actually happened wasn_'_t entertaining, amusing, or interesting, but I knew he was too thick to understand even if I did.

Once Luffy reached the human and he'd inspected it thoroughly, the fog thickened. It was almost impossible to see my own hand in front of my face; I'm not kidding at all. A sickening slithering noise sounded behind us, and then I heard Nami let out a shriek that turned my blood to ice.

* * *

_*I kind of imagined this as a 'Scooby in Shaggy's arms' scene xD_

_•She was using her old, red staff because this is before Alabasta and her Clima-Tact  
_

_**Like the Energizer Bunny! _8D

_Hm... yup. Way to kill the moment. Nice going, Rexan. xP_


	10. Starting the Fight

_Heya! Sorry for the late update. :P But listen to this: today's Zolo's birthday! (November 11th) Happy birthday, dude!! :D_

_

* * *

_

"Nami…?" Chopper timidly asked.

There was no answer. I heard hooves start to slap skin, and the little reindeer began to yell, "Usopp! Usopp! Nami's gone!"

Usopp mumbled, and then he screamed, "Nami's gone?! Where'd she go?!"

Chopper started to sob, and Luffy sounded extremely upset. "Oi, stupid monster!" he shouted. "Where'd you take my nakama?!"

_Nakama…_ _I wish someone could call me that,_ I found myself unconsciously thinking.

A minute later, we were all yelling into the fog, hoping for any trace of the navigator. "Nami! Where'd you go?!"

Really, I have no idea how long we did that for, a minute and a half at the least, but rapid running footsteps approached behind us after we had been yelling for a while. It was easy to know who was coming, though, because I smelled, and almost chocked at the scent of, Sanji's cigarette.

Luffy happily yelled, "Sanji!" and the frustrated reply was, "What's happened to my beautiful Nami-swan?! I heard her scream!"

I was the one to answer. "Well... I think it might've been a... er... snake."

"Snake? _That's_ what happened?!" No one could see his face through the fog, but I was sure he looked absolutely enraged. "I'll go and kick the stupid thing to death!"

Sanji ran off in the direction of the needles and dead tethered people. I heard him run straight into one of the stiff needles, and he hollered, "What is th— Wha-what _is _this?! What the heck! Someone tell me what's going on here!" He was trying to not sound scared, but I'd never heard his voice—or anyone's, for that matter—sound that shaky.

"We don't get it either, Sanji..." Chopper quietly explained.

"Well, where did Nami-san disappear to?"

"We... we don't know."

"Fine! I'll find her myself!" he snapped. He stomped off, and his footsteps eventually faded. _So... he forgot his competition with Zolo, huh? Well, good luck with finding Nami then, Sanji, _was my silent wish for good luck.

I nervously sighed. "Well, there's no use just standing here, is there, guys? We should... um... hold hands so we don't lose each other in this fog." I winced at how stupid the idea sounded. "Luffy, where do you want to be?"

"The front."

"Alright. Okay, Usopp. You're second, Chopper's third, and I'll be last." _The most dangerous position._

No arguments or protests were heard, so I assumed that everyone was fine with the idea. I felt Chopper's hoof poke my leg to attract my attention. I grabbed it with my gloved hand with reassuring firmness.

There were a couple muffled _swaps_, which showed me that everyone else was grabbing each other's hands, too. Luffy called back, "Now what?"

"Well... Chopper's a reindeer, right?" I directed the next part at him. "Did you smell anything strange or out of the ordinary? Can you tell where the thing took Nami?"

"Actually, now that you mention it, there _was_ a weird smell; like a lot of metal, and... hmm. There was something else along with it. I can't think of it right now, but I'm sure it'll come to me."

"So, do you have any idea where it went?"

Usopp and Luffy were being unusually quiet, so I guessed that they were engrossed in Chopper and my conversation. (_Luffy, listening? Wow!_)

"Which way did it go?" I repeated.

He quietly sniffed the air, and then he pointed out, "We have to—" I felt him shudder, "—continue behind the hung people. That's where we'll find it."

The straw hatted captain at the front of the line U-turned his group so he'd still be in front, and we cautiously edged past all the hanging bodies. Luffy was acting more serious than I'd even known was possible for him; there were no jokes or unthought comments to be heard, only the paced _klop_ of his sandals.

A few minutes passed, and the fog cleared. It seemed like a miracle. There was only a weak haze now, so we were able to see all the way back to the needles in the ground; even if they were still only looked like feeble shadows. I could've almost imagined seeing the sky, but the haze grew stronger the higher it climbed. "Stop," came the sudden command from Chopper. "The smell parts here; I can't follow it anymore."

A single disappointed sigh came from the rest of us.

Luffy broke away from Usopp, and he walked a few feet away before making a surprisingly smart announcement. "We can't figure out anything by being stuck together right now. Let's spread out, but be careful not to lose sight of each other." Everybody looked at Luffy with a shocked expression.

_For once, he really _is_ acting like a captain! _Where did he learn real leadership?

Gathering our muddled thoughts together, we nodded and all walked off in different directions. Chopper and Usopp were pretty reluctant to follow the command, but they did.

After a while, everyone was busy with their search, and we were all almost consumed by the haze since we had spread out so much. Suddenly, Luffy loudly remarked, "Hey, guys! There's something over here!"

Everybody tore after Luffy, desperate to find Nami. Chopper had turned into his normal-looking reindeer form so he could reach his captain sooner.

"Look! Meat!" Luffy excitedly cheered.

The haze was thicker where we were standing, and Luffy was right and wrong at the same time: There _was_ something there, but I was sure that it wasn't edible at all. This huge, robotic snake was coiled up, resting. It was made up of many metal segments that became smaller as they got closer to the tail until it ended in a point with an evil looking barb sticking out of it. It had a dark line on both of its sides that curved with the body. Next to it was an extremely deep and dark looking pit; it seemed like even the haze was avoiding it.

The ground it was sleeping on was basically a nest made of—Usopp paled when he spotted them—bones. All kinds of bones. Animal and human skulls and all sorts of other skeletal parts.

"Doesn't it look delicious?" Luffy admired.

"No," was my frank answer. His grin fell, and he looked at the ground, discouraged.

As if in reply to Luffy, the snake lifted its head and looked straight at us. Its eyelids lowered over red eyes to create an angry glare. Usopp keeled over, but Chopper changed into his human form and caught his long-nosed friend an instant before he hit the ground.

"Th-thanks," Usopp muttered weakly.

To keep his mind on what was going on, Luffy shook his head. He let in a large breath and then, "Oi! Stupid worm! Give me back my nakama!!"

A strained and raspy sounding, "Luffy? Help," echoed out of the pit. I recognized the voice as Nami's.

"Yeah, get us out of this crappy place!" a stronger voice that I identified as Sanji's rose from the same prison.

"Got it!"

"You'd better understand," the cook threatened.

_Fssh..._ What seemed like mist shot out of the cracks connecting the different sections of the snake together and, the haze, once again, became so condensed, that I could only see a few feet in front of me. Coughing erupted from where Nami and Sanji were, then their coughing quieted down until there was utter silence on the island.

That sickening slithering from earlier was heard, and I noticed that there wasn't any _clank_ing or _clunk_ing of any kind that should've been heard from the snake's metallic body. "W-what's going on?" Usopp asked with his knees banging together.

"No way!" Chopper gasped, sounding horrified. "The bones in that pile... that thing's put their skin on its stomach! _That_'_s _what that smell was!"

"What? Why does it have skin on its belly?!" I asked in an 'oh-crap-no-way' voice.

"So it's not as noticeable when sneaking up on someone," Chopper explained, sounding scared out of his wits.

"Urgh... no way..." I replied queasily.

"The skin smells absolutely horrible and death ridden. I think that—_Ack!_"

A murky sounding _fssh_ and then silence.

"Chopper? Chopper! Where the heck did you go? Chopper!!"

Luffy and Usopp joined in with my frantic calls, but there was nobody to answer us. Another member was gone.

"OI! CHOPPER! WHERE'D YOU GO?!?" Luffy screamed. No response or sound at all. The slithering started, and it disappeared into the distance away from the three of us that were left.

A dull _thud,_ more slithering, and then a faraway voice asking, "Huh? Oh, I knew there was something else here. You wanna fight?" It was Zolo. Was he going to be able to beat the monster?

From the distance, the almost inaudible sound of swords unsheathing reached me, and then the snake let out a hiss at the swordsman. Steel clashed loudly, and there were even several times where I heard rock break. Nobody was doing anything; I could only wonder what was going through everyone else's mind then. I was thinking, _Please, please let him beat that thing._

"Woah! What the h—!" His voice was cut off by that watery _fssh_ that I already hated.

_Thud._

"_ZOLO!!_" Luffy screeched. He blindly tore off into the fog to go and try to help his comrade. His sandals' _klop_s got quieter with the distance between Usopp and me.

_He doesn't even know where he's going!_

"You... are... going... to... have... your... butt... kicked!" Luffy yelled between strides. One more of the snake's warnings resounded towards Usopp and me and then we heard an angry but confident, "_Yeah! You heard me!_"

"If only I could see through this fog..." Usopp trembled. I glanced over towards his voice.

"It's gonna be okay; Luffy'll take care of it," I tried to comfort him. _I really hope I'm right._

More rock breaking was heard and metal being hit with extreme force, and then...

"Gum gum... Windmill!"

Moments later, a far off and hard _clang_ was heard. The distant sound changed into a series of weak squeaks a couple of seconds later; like what a door that needed to be oiled would sound like. Only ten seconds later, the battle continued.

Several minutes passed, and I started to think about how useless I was being just by standing in that one place. _There has to be _something_ I can do!_

Gradually, the fog thinned and was warped into an ominous haze. "Yes! Here I come, stupid reptile!" Usopp bragged. I cringed slightly; an especially loud and appalling _crunch_ burst from the snake, thanks to a well landed punch from Luffy.

Usopp pried open his orange purse and grabbed sniper goggles from it. He put them onto his head, and then tugged down the lenses over his eyes and grabbed a slingshot along with ammunition out of purse. _And that all fits in there... how? _I found myself wondering.

He loaded a—pachinko?—ball into his slingshot and took aim at Luffy's opponent. Luffy was starting to slow down; the battle looked vicious and energy consuming, but the snake looked like it was still just beginning. "Need some help over there, Captain?" Usopp hollered. The robot looked straight at us, and stopped attacking for a spilt second.

Luffy did, too, but then the snake lunged at Luffy and deftly flung him into the air. "Gyahh!?" he yelled, almost confused.

_Click. Fssh. Click._

When Luffy landed on the ground, he crumpled like a rag doll and didn_'_t get back up. The snake again flung Luffy through the air, but he was tossed with stunning accuracy into the pit where Nami and Sanji were, instead of back onto the ground.

"Luf...fy?" Usopp uncertainly asked. His face began to slowly contort with rage, and then he burst out, "_That was _my_ captain and friend there! But you know what?! The Great Captain Usopp is here to beat your sorry tail into oblivion!!_"

Expertly and quickly loading and reloading his slingshot, his hands were moving so fast they were almost a blur, Usopp was shooting all of his ammunition from his orange purse at the snake. Explosions, loud crashes, and even the reek of burning metal were the effects of Usopp's attack.

For a bit, I was just rooted to the spot, unable to make myself do anything. "What're you doing?!" Usopp finally yelled at me. "At least do _something!_"

I nodded dumbly, still kind of stunned. I warily twisted my right arm in such a way that my weapon concealed up that arm fell into my open and ready hand.

A whip; that's my item of choice in a battle. Being able to grab something from a good distance and then hurt my enemies with the same tool is just such an amazing and cool idea to me. When it's completely mastered, it definitely becomes a formidable weapon.

Quickly, I charged up to the weakening opponent; Usopp began to aim his attacks farther away from where I was heading.

The snake lashed its tail out to grab me, but I lashed out faster. My whip purposefully tangled around its tail and I was flung onto its dented and beat up back; brutally damaged from Luffy's blows. _So far so good..._ "Hehe... _Now_ let's see you get rid of me!" I taunted.

Suddenly, it started to buck and it seemed like I was on a bull that was trying to throw me off its back. "I'm not gonna fall off. But you know that, right?" I sneered. Slowly, but surely, I started to climb its ferociously rocking body.

Out of nowhere, it stopped trying to catapult me off. It was strange how the monster had fallen completely still; all of the blows to its head stopped, and I looked over at Usopp. He'd lifted up his goggles a bit and was dumbfounded at the odd and sudden change.

A slight twitch, and then the metallic creature flipped onto its back. It was an extremely fast movement; less than a second altogether. Luckily, I'd caught on to what it was doing just in time. I'd jumped and landed... on the creature's belly.

My reaction to where I was standing caused me to convulse like I was going to puke; I'm surprised I didn't. Standing on skin is _not_ pleasant. When I was on its belly, it was easy to tell that Chopper had been right; it was like standing on a bunch of animal hides stitched together. Actually, in more ways than one, I really _was_ doing just that.

I shuddered, but I had to remind myself that I couldn't do anything useful by just standing there and feeling sick. It took all my willpower to do anything on there. My resolve returned my strength to my legs, and I dashed up towards the snake's head.

Usopp hadn't begun shooting again, so I glanced over at him for a spilt second to see what was going on.

He was anxiously rummaging through his orange purse, most likely looking for more of his pachinko balls or special ones I think he'd made himself. He hadn't been able to find anything in it, obviously, because he stiffened and his searching became more desperate. He ended up dumping out all the contents in his purse onto the rocky ground, still looking for more pachinko. (There was _a lot_ more than there should've been in that purse.)

Still on its back, the snake began to snap at me with its needle-like fangs. Wait, scratch that. They _were_ needles. They were pointing backwards at an angle, and they grew smaller as they got closer to the back of the mouth. There was a loud, jarring _clang!_ each time the mouth closed.

_Click._

Usopp shrieked, "What the—!" while watching me.

Pain, squeezing, constriction, crushing. _I can't breathe..._ I thought in a panic, grabbing at a wire that was twisting around my stomach.

"Hold on, Renor!" Usopp shakily tried to reassure me.

Several times, I tried to call out to him, but I couldn't find enough air to.

Usopp frantically glanced around the barren landscape, grabbed something from his pile of random items, and then dashed away. "Us... opp!" I managed to gasp. _Great, he ran away,_ I angrily thought.

The wire twisting around my body tightened, and I accidentally lost my grip on the whip. I though, _Oh, crap! _as it fell onto the grey rocky ground.

The robot's red eyes were staring me in the face, looking for something, but I didn't know what.

_Klaaang!!_

It recoiled slightly, and the wire twisted around me released me. I heavily dropped onto the ground, and I was reduced to gasping for air._ Wait, what's that?_ A mallet was lying on the ground, and a new, but weak, dent was pressed into the snake's side.

"How do you like that, huh?!" Usopp yelled at the snake.

"Heh... thanks..." was my strained reply.

Growling, the snake changed its target from me to Usopp. "Wait, come back here!" I shouted. It ignored me.

"I said, _get back here!_"

* * *

_S__orry, Zolo! This didn't exactly seem like a 'Happy' birthday for you, did it? Oh... Well, I'll try again next year. -snickers-_

_And, Renor, that's **man purse **for ya! Usopp doesn't go around carrying just **any** old purse! Sheesh...  
_


	11. And the Battle Begins

Still, the stupid snake ignored me. I couldn't tell if it was deaf or if it just wasn't taking me as a threat. I picked up Usopp's mallet and weighed it in my hand for a second, and then I hurled it as hard as I could at the snake's head.

A _klaaang!_ came from the head when it hit. It wasn't nearly as loud as Luffy or Zolo's attacks, but it still broke the near silence on the island with ferocious volume.

The snake's head whipped around to give me a warning hiss. I'm sure that the snake was blazing with fury, angry with the persistent little idiot that kept stupidly trying to defeat it. "I'm not gonna stop hurting you until you let your five captives go," I stated, slowly picking up my whip from the ground.

Its gaze kept switching between Usopp and me with intensity. Right when I was sure it was going to go for me next, it lashed its dark stripes on its body, which turned out to be the wires that had attacked me, out at Usopp. _Click._ They lifted him up about seven or ten feet from the hard ground, but Usopp was biting at them and trying to kick the wires the entire time.

First, they tangled around his arms, immobilizing them. Then, they wrapped around his stomach, like they had done to me, and one of them slithered into Usopp's mouth, pulling it open. The other one then darted towards the lower part of his jaw and forced it to stay that way while aiming into his mouth. He kept struggling to get out of the frighteningly strong grip the entire time.

_Fssh._

A thick white substance spread from the end of the wires and into Usopp's mouth. It looked thick, but it was able to move through the air like some kind of strange vapor. For a few more moments, Usopp continued to fight against the creature, but then he fell still and his body slumped. The wires retracted and allowed Usopp to fall to the ground.

_Click._

I was shocked for a bit. I didn't know what to do. Once the idea of what had just happened finally hit me, I started to shake with anger. The snake just bent down, picked Usopp up in its jaws, and slithered towards its pit and bony nest. When it reached the pit, it carelessly dropped Usopp into it.

The _thud_ of Usopp's body hitting the bottom was heard, and then the snake turned around and squinted at me. Somehow, I knew it wasn't glaring. It was _squinting_, like it was looking for something.

Carefully, even though it didn't have anything to be careful about, it slithered towards me. My fist tightly clenched around my whip.

_Click._ Its wires came undone. It started growling, and then it sped up and launched itself through the air towards me, letting out a metallic sounding roar.

_FSSSSSSH._

The wires started wildly waving around and spraying their murky vapor everywhere, and I felt myself breathe it in. It made me cough, and it felt like when the droplets of the vapor got into my throat, it started to burn.

I jumped to the side to avoid getting crushed by the snake. When I landed, my coughing became louder, more choked, and painful until I just barely was wheezing and then was reduced to merely gasping.

_Crap. I can't fight this monster like this._

I used my free hand to try and wave away the vapor floating around by my face. In the snake's attempt to try and attack me, it started striking out with its needle-filled mouth, trying to eat me or bite me or something. I had to keep dodging, and every single dodge became weaker than the last.

Thankfully, my opponent started to run out of its murky spray right when I thought I wouldn't be able to make it.

_Fsh… sh… FSH… fsh…_

Sputtering, the spray coming out of the wires thinned until it stopped coming out altogether. The snake looked between the two wires, and shook them to try to make them work again. I tried to at least get a scoff out at it, but, instead, I doubled over and my coughing fit restarted. And then, at the worst possible moment, my legs gave out, and they were too weak to be able to move.

_Not now!_ "Come _on!_ Get up!" I yelled, pounding my legs. "Oh, great," I moaned helplessly after only a second.

The snake started hissing again, but… instead of a trying-to-be-scary hiss, I think it was some kind of _laughter_. _What? Do I really look that amusing? _I glared.

"GAAH!" A loud shout came from the pit.

"Luffy?!" I coughed disbelievingly.

"Where am I?!"

"In a hole."

"Oh, yeah. Look at that."

_Click._

The snake reattached its wires to its side, and, again, switched its target from me. "_Will you just get over here, you stupid snake?!?_"After I'd somehow managed to get that loud yell out without coughing, I fell to the ground with the worst coughing I've ever heard.

"Huh? Me?" Luffy asked.

"Not you, Luffy."

"Oh. Wait, did that worm-dino put me in here?"

"Yup. It's coming towards you right now." _How is he completely calm? How is he not freaking out about his friends' bodies?_

"_Aaaah!_ Oh. It's just Usopp. Usopp, Usopp, wake up."

_What an idiot._

"Everyone's in here! Why? Uh… Hello? You guys awake? Sanji? Chopper? Nami? Zolo?" He paused. "Renor, they're not waking up!"

"Don't expect _me_ to know how to help them!"

"That worm-thing did this, right?"

"Yeah…"

"'Kay.

"Hey! Dino-worm! Get over here so I can kick your butt!" I saw his arm stretch up to grab the top of his prison, but before he managed to reach it, the snake swiftly arched its tail above its head to resemble a worm-like scorpion. Then it shot its barb that was sticking out of the end of its tail.

In mid-air, the barb straightened out and then changed slightly until it resembled an oversized and deadly staple.

Luffy's hand was about a foot or two from grabbing the top of the pit, but the staple pinned his arm against the back wall with frightening power and speed before he was able to. He let out a loud and pained yell, because the staple had pierced through the bone in his arm on one side and then squeezed the rest of his arm into an impossibly thin amount of space.

_If he didn't eat his Devil Fruit, he would've lost his hand right then, _I realized.

Still wanting to crush that snake into a pulp, he shot his other arm up. It was met with the same fate. After a second helpless yell, Luffy's body flew up to meet his stapled arms.

Just hanging there, I though that if his feet had been stapled together under his body, he would've looked almost like a crucified outlaw. _Wait, he _is_ an outlaw,_ I suddenly remembered. With all his happiness, eagerness, and just being Luffy, I'd completely forgotten for that entire day that he had a bounty.

"Well… do your best, 'kay, Renor? You said you're not a wimp; now you've got to show you really aren't," he grimaced.

_He's as unpredictable as the Grand Line! It's impossible to tell if he's an idiot or really smart. Geez… I wish he'd make up his mind on what to be._ "You got it, Luffy."

He gave me an attempt at a smile, but it immediately changed into a frown when his gaze wandered to his trapped hands. "Can you hurry up? My hands look funny." When I peered at them, I saw they were starting to change to a kind of light purple.

_There's still a possibility of him losing his hands. He's right. I gotta do this quick._ I shakily stood up; the poisonous mist was still lingering around me, but, much to my relief, it was starting to spread out and its effects were weakening.

When my enemy saw that its best weapon it had used against me earlier wasn't really working anymore, _click_, it tried to douse me again. Still, nothing came out except for a few feeble spurts. _Click._ It remembered how useless they were.

"Not gonna work anymore," I smirked. "Heh. Like Luffy said, I gotta get rid of you quickly. So get over here like the good lit—" I stared up at its head, looming far above me, "like the good snake you _should _be," I corrected myself.

It growled and shot its new barb, which turned into another zooming staple, at me. I can say without hesitation that it missed its mark by a _long_ shot. Another barb was shot, and then another, and another. Not even needing to move for any of them, I began to know something was wrong, even though I didn't (and don't) know what was. It had been able to hit Luffy's arms with pinpoint accuracy; I'll bet it'd _wanted_ to drive its ammunition through his bone.

"What's wrong?! I'm too good for you?!" I knew I wasn't; I just wanted the thing to use all its ammo before I took a good shot at it. My strength was returning; the more the mist thinned, the stronger I felt. I glanced over at Luffy, and I noticed he was looking between his blue-ish hands and me. Even with him being that stupid, he knew something bad was going on. Also, he knew I was taking too long.

_Alright, come on, Renor. You can do this._

_**Why are you helping him? He's a pirate! **_ my evil conscience taunted.

_Shut up._

_**No. I****'**__**m only trying to say that you don****'**__**t need to do this. You barely know that loser!  
**_

_I know that he'__s not that bad._

_**I****'**__**m sure he just hasn****'**__**t shown his true colors yet.**_

_Well, I'__m sure that his hands are a color they shouldn'__t be!_

_**Just leave him.**_

_No. _And with that, thankfully, the voice shut up.

Finally, the snake decided to stop shooting its staples at me. Instead, it started trying to poke me to death with its un-shot barb. Maybe 'poke' isn't the right word; 'stab' or 'skewer' would probably fit better in that spot... Still, 'poke' seems to work, right? Anyways...

Dodging became easier with each second, but I still had to do this ASAP, even if that meant making it a tiny bit harder for myself. _Come on... what makes this thing tick?_

There was nothing giving away what gave this monster its energy. _Wait a minute..._

Its eyes. Its eyes looked like the top and bottom of a spool or yarn or string. _Maybe if I..._

"Woah!" I ducked out of the way quickly; its tail had a close call to driving its barb right through my skull. "Okay... come on..."

Again, I wrapped my whip around its attacking tail and I ended up on its back when its tail recoiled. _Here I go._

Before dashing up its back towards its head, I had to make sure that I wasn't going to get swept off by the tail; it had stopped trying to stab me and started trying to whack me off instead. With all of the speed I had, I rushed off towards its head, ducking or jumping when needed, and then I was on its neck when it stopped attacking.

"Come on! Attack! I dare you!"

Apparently this thing knew better than to try to hurt me while I was there. "Dang it..." I muttered. "Uh..." I thought for a brief second. "Got it!"

Again, I started running, but this time, instead of heading straight for its head, I tried to go for its mouth. To try to reach it, I was using some dents on the snake's head that Usopp, Luffy, and Zolo had made earlier as handholds.

Wildly thrashing its head around trying to make me fall off was an unsuccessful plan on the snake's part. I mean, it _was_ pretty difficult to keep my grip, especially with my leather gloves being rather slippery on top of this metal snake. But, still, I couldn't take them off; I had my reasons. Plus, the snake had turned its head around to try eating me again. Snapping its mouth open and shut, open and shut, at me, it almost shook off my grip each time it closed.

"Remember when I told you I'm not gonna fall off? I meant it, you know!"

_Click._

_Come on! Not now!_

The wires weren't trying or even attempting to try showering me with their acidic mist, but they kept trying to strangle me and get me off guard, which was a huge problem the closer I got to its snapping, needle filled mouth.

_Just a tiny bit closer..._

"Alright, here we g— Crap! Let go!" One of the wires had snared my right foot and was furiously tugging me and trying to get me to fall to the ground. "_Let go!_"

Next, the other wire caught my other leg. Loud squeaking came from under my hands while I tried to keep my grip while being pulled downwards. _Only a bit of aim... and..._

_Swipah!_ My whip cracked at one of the evil wires and its grip on me wavered. Another direct hit, and it let go. _Click._ "Wah!" From another strong tug from the second wire, my hand not holding onto my whip suddenly lurched backwards, almost sending me sprawling to the ground. I struggled to regain my grip, and, somehow, I did.

One good hit to the other wire and it clicked back in its place. I let out a relieved sigh and continued inching towards my goal for one or two more seconds. I reached out my free hand into the snake's mouth. The mouth snapped shut one last time and crushed my hand. "YOW!" It _hurt!_ My hand was being crushed, and I swear, I heard one or two cracks come from it. "Ow..." I cringed, looking at my hand getting squished in between the snake's upper and lower jaw.

I think I heard another hissing laugh come from the snake's closed mouth, when I thought of another idea. _My feet aren't doing anything right now..._ I decided to put them to good use. I planted my left foot on the side of the snake's lower jaw, and then, with my right, I kicked the snake's mouth as hard as I could.

Its mouth opened out of surprise and released my hand. It felt as if a wonderful sense of ease just shot through my hand and up my arm, but then a second later it started to hurt again; I probably broke a couple bones.

Carefully, but tightly and speedily, I tied my whip around my what felt almost useless left wrist. I wouldn't be needing the whip anymore in this battle.

After tying up my whip, I gripped the longest needle-tooth I could reach, and I tugged it out with a strained grunt. "Yes!" I cheered once it came out. The snake let out a loud roar, straightened up, and swung its head around some more; I think it realized I was a bigger nuisance than it had originally thought. (Nobody likes the dentist, ya know?) The tooth had an obscenely tall height of four, maybe five, feet; it was hopefully about as tall as this snake's head was wide.

Slowly, just to make sure I didn't fall off, I crawled on top of its head. Still angrily, but now it seemed more desperate than anything, the snake was whipping its head back and forth. A few times, I slightly dug the needle in between some large screw heads; they were part of the snake, and they were keeping some of its several jaw parts together. The only reason I did that was to make sure I didn't fall.

On its forehead, after almost falling several times, I took a few well placed steps to end up right by one of its eyes. The snake seemed to understand what I was doing, and it started whipping its entire body around. It seemed like some kind of jump rope with the ripples of its bounces coming from its head and then moving towards the tail.

I jammed the needle through its eye right when I was sure about my position. I felt a satisfying amount of resistance with the needle heading through its head before seeing it sprout a bit from its other eye.

A deafening, nightmarish screech rose from the thing's throat. Still, it wasn't dead. I didn't think it was going to be after that. _And now, if I'm right..._

_**You're probably wrong.**_

_Just go away, will you?_

Pulling the needle out, but then slightly shifting it towards the outside of its mouth, I pulled the long needle out. The needle slipped out of the snake's head and had some red twine following it. The strange eye started to spin at the same speed as the string coming out, and several clicks sounded from the inside of its forehead. The snake's resistance against me stopped.

_Ca... Ga.. Ugh... _the creature coughed. Many more gasping coughs came out, until it suddenly bucked its head and I flew off, unsuspecting of a sudden and last attempt to finally get rid of me.

For what felt like forever, I was flying through the air and watching the rock under me and staples stuck in the ground sail by under me.

And then I landed.

I skidded along the ground, and I heard several sharp cracks come from my right arm, the arm that I'd tried to use to soften my landing. It really wasn't that bright of an idea to try to use _that_ arm, because I'm right handed. Seriously. I wonder about myself sometimes.

Pain shot up my arm, and I roughly hit my head on the ground after a hard bounce.

"Ow... Crud..." I got up, and almost fell back down again; my left leg had snapped one degree past the normal limit, and I think that I did something funny to that leg's knee joint. When I looked up, the red string had tied around the needle and trailed all the way from the snake to where I stopped skidding. My head felt almost like it was swimming, and there was some warm blood trickling down the side of it. _Man... I hope my sweatshirt doesn'__t get bloodstained, _was all I was thinking at the moment.

Before the snake totally shut down, it was able to shoot me one last, hate filled glare, and then it crumpled onto the ground and didn't move again.

"Renor? Remember me over here?" For once, Luffy's calm stupidity made me laugh. An instant later, though, I remembered how important speed was for his condition.

I quickly tore the string off the needle, which caused a painful burning feeling shoot up my arm. I ignored the pain, though. There were more important things to worry about than a hurt arm. Then I dashed over to Luffy, leaving the string behind but still holding the snake's ultimate cause of its death: the needle. I felt pain every time I breathed, moved my arms to pump me forward, or put either of my legs forward. It also hurt _really_ badly when my right foot hit the ground after each step.

It was excruciatingly painful to keep up a speedy pace, but I knew that it would turn out worse for Luffy if I took too long; bones can always be mended, right? But hands can't be grown back. _I hope he has a doctor on his ship. For both his sake and for mine.  
_

I felt like I'd taken forever to run past the snake, through the maze of oversized staples arched out of the ground, and then by the freakily huge pile of bones. When I looked down at Luffy, I saw that his hands were a sickening purple-blue, which, even without any medical knowledge, I knew was really bad.

Bending down over the side of the pit, I was careful not to fall in.

I peered down at the bottom of the pit to see how everybody was doing. They were all unconscious and looking pale, like that kind of bleached color the bird hung on the second large needle had been. I shuddered and hoped that they were fine. To release Luffy from his unique... 'shackles,' I was exact as possible with fitting the needle between the staples and Luffy's arm. It took most of my strength, and much terrible, burning pain searing through my arms to push out and undo both of them. He fell to the bottom of the pit when I released both of his hands.

I don't know how many people have tried doing something like that, (Not_ exactly_ like that; I don't think many, or any, people have tried releasing a friend from killer staples before.) but it's really hard to move broken arms at all. Near impossible, actually. When I had released Luffy, I had just assumed that he would fall into some of the untaken space below, but I should've known what would happen. He fell right onto poor little Chopper.

Muffled screams erupted from under Luffy, and when he stood up, he just apologized. "Sorry..."

Chopper gasped for air when he got up. "You okay?" I shouted down to Chopper.

"Yeah," he breathed.

"So... need some help up?"

He looked around. "I... I think so."

"Okay. I've got an idea.

"Hey, Luffy." He turned his head up towards me to show that he'd heard. "Shoot your arm up here. I'll grab it." I couldn't grab his hands; not after what they'd been through. For all I knew, it could've made their condition worse. He did as I told him, and grabbing it was easier than I'd expected. "Now grab Chopper." Luffy did, but Chopper didn't seem too enthusiastic about the idea. "What are you going to do?" was his wide-eyed question.

"Luffy, toss him up here."

"What?! No! Luffy! Don't—" He was ignored. Luffy obediently did as I had said, and Chopper flew up towards me, screaming. I backed up a bit, and, still holding onto Luffy's stretchy arm, I caught Chopper. Quietly, I said some kind of, "Ow," after catching him because the pain in my arm was set ablaze again. Thankfully, I don't think Chopper heard me.

Luffy and I did this with everyone else, and they all woke up with their rough landing. Each catch hurt more than the last, until I finally came to catching Zolo, who had been the last one up. (He didn't wake up, but he started snoring, so I assumed he was okay.) I crumpled to the ground and gasped for air. Luffy had brought himself up out of the pit using his arm I was holding onto as some kind of rope. When he saw me on the ground, he asked, genuinely confused, "Is Zolo really that heavy?"

I laughed, "No, it's not that." When I shakily stood up off the ground, Chopper shot me a worried glance.

"Are you okay, Renor?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." Another sharp pain fired through my right arm, and my left hand shot over to grab it.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. I think I just broke a few bones, that's all," I responded, trying to make it seem like it wasn't that huge of a deal. "Do you... have a doctor on your ship?"

"I'm the doctor."

"Really? That's so cool!"

"Haha! That won't make me happy! No! Not at all!" He suddenly stopped his laughter and coughed 'professionally' into his arm before continuing. "Do you want me to give you a checkup when we get back to the Merry Go or do you want me to check you up here?" he questioned, ready to get his backpack off his back.

"Uh... okay."

He glanced around at everyone else, and then silently muttered, "I think everyone's going to be needing one."

Nami was surveying the aftermath of the battle. "Hey, Renor."

"Yeah?"

"How come you didn't use that long string over there to get us out of the pit?"

"Well, that's because... well... um... It's because... because..."

She scoffed. "You know that would've been easier than having Luffy toss us up here."

"Okay, you know what? A 'thanks' could've been nice, at least," I irritably replied.

"You're right." A smile spread across her face. "Thanks." ("Aah. Nami-san's so amazing when she's grateful.")

"So... anyone know which way the ship is?" I asked.

Zolo snored, Luffy started cluelessly staring into the distance, Usopp put his hand up to his forehead and squinted through the fog, Sanji peered around, and Nami had that, "Wow, she's actually right about something," look.

"W-well... I think I should be able to follow our scent back to the ship," Chopper piped up.

"Oh! Great idea, Chopper!" Nami exclaimed, clapping her hands together.

"Hehe... praising doesn't make me happy!" Again, he started doing his funny clap-dance. "Heehee..."

I poked him in the back. "Chopper. The ship, remember?"

He stopped in mid-step to peer up at me. "Right." He straightened out his pink hat even though it was totally fine. "Um... we came from the direction of those needles, so let's start off there first."

Everyone nodded in unison, and then Nami told Sanji, "Take Zolo along, will you? I know he won't wake up even if we try to make him."

"What!? But Nami—!"

"Come on. I'll give you a 'treat' when we get back to the ship..." She clasped the top of her shirt and gave a hinting wink.

"You wouldn't!" Sanji shouted, almost drooling. "Hai, Nami-san! Anything for you!"

I felt sick. _She'd _better_ not do that... Urgh..._ My stomach turned. Everyone else, besides sleeping Zolo and always-clueless Luffy, also looked unsure and wary.

"Come on. Let's get back to the ship," I coughed queasily.

"Everyone ready?" Chopper asked.

"Oh! One moment!" Usopp said. He dashed off and picked up his hammer and everything else he'd dumped out of his purse and jammed everything right back in. He rushed back over. "Alright. Now I am."

We were led back to the creepy hanging corpses by Chopper. No matter how far away we got from the fight scene, Usopp couldn't help looking back at the motionless snake. When we reached the first person in the back of the long human row, Chopper's nose quivered, and then he flatly stated, "Alright, I got it." His eyes darted between the ever staring beings. "Let's go."

* * *

_This was the first action scene I've ever__ written, so constructive criticism is definitely appreciated if you want to say something. ^_^ __Oh, and reviews in general are appreciated, too, in case anyone's forgotten. x) Oh, but 'Plz updat soon' stuff isn't really what I could call a 'real' review... o.o_


	12. One Heck of a Yes

With every single minute that passed, the fog that was draped over the island thinned. While nothing was happening, I took untied my whip from my left wrist and tried to put it back under my right arm's sleeve without anyone noticing. Too bad, though. My right arm seemed less responsive than it had when I had rescued everyone from the pit, so I decided just to keep my whip loosely tied around my left wrist.

The entire way back, nothing came out of nowhere and tried to attack us, thank goodness. I wouldn't have been able to use my whip out if my life depended on it.

It felt like it took several hours, but I knew it wasn't, or else someone (namely me or Luffy; maybe Usopp) would've started complaining. Maybe they didn't know how much time had passed either, and they didn't want to say anything until they were sure it was at least an hour. I dunno. All I really do know is that Luffy finally started eating his forgotten pirate lunch box and was finished with it in not even a minute. He was sucking on his fingers trying to get the rest of his snack for a few minutes.

Before this long walk, I didn't even know that it was possible not to be sure about whether only a half hour, an hour, or hours had passed, but apparently it really was possible. All I know for sure is that when the Merry Go came into sight in the distance as a shadow, I felt relieved, but I think Sanji was more so than me, knowing that he'd be able to get rid of Zolo soon.

"The Merry Go!" Luffy yelled. He zoomed off and was onboard and impatiently waiting for everybody when we all reached it a few minutes later.

"Phew," Usopp sighed. "That was a long walk. Too bad that snake didn't come after us again. I would have beat it with a _bam whiff pow_!" he bragged to Chopper.

"Hey! Sanji!" Luffy called down. "I want food!"

"Alright," he muttered. Then he turned around and grinned at Nami. "Oh, and Nami, don't forget your promise."

"Geez. Just get Zolo onto the ship, will you?"

"Hai…" With a grunt, Sanji roughly threw Zolo onto the Merry Go.

"_Who did that?!_" Zolo angrily asked when he finally woke up after his _thud_ of 'ungraceful landingness.'

"Shut up, crap-swordsman," Sanji growled.

"Food!" Luffy randomly commanded.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming."

Everybody followed him onto the ship. I was the last up, because I didn't want everyone to wait for beat-up me to take forever on the ladder.

When I reached the deck of the ship, I let out a loud, relieved sigh. _I'll be able to rest now,_ I thought.

"Renor? Didn't you say you needed a check-up?" Chopper asked when he saw me lean against the side of the ship.

Again, I let out a sigh, but this was one more out of annoyance than anything. "Yeah. Will you be giving me a sling if I do have any broken bones?" _If? Pfft. I probably have like twenty quadrillion bones _shattered_!_

"Yeah, if it's needed." He peered down at my left leg, which was still feeling terrible and I think it was still at the wrong angle. "I think you have a dislocation…"

"Thanks," I sarcastically told him. "What're you going to do? Push it back into place?"

"If I need to."

"Oh." Having a bone pushed back into place never sounded like a good idea to me. _But he's a doctor,_ I tried to reassure myself. _He knows what's best._

"Okay. Follow me into my bedroom; I've got Luffy in there, too. He needs to have his hands checked." He looked down at a square door in the wooden floor in front of the mast. "Uh… you might need help getting down…" He opened up the door. The mast continued down into the room below. It had some rungs on the side to help anyone who wanted to get down.

"It's fine, Chopper. I can manage."

He gave me a funny look, one of that consisted both of doubt and worry. "No, seriously. I can help you down if you—"

"No, I'm being serious. I can do it." _I think._

"Alright…"

I went right down the rungs, and I was managing fine, too, even though it was 99% unbearable. I left 1% out because I was able to do it, right? Still, it was absolutely horrible and painful. Two rungs from the bottom, my right arm gave out. "CRUD!" I shouted as I fell. I twisted myself in mid-air to try to land better, but, of course, I fell on my left leg, and it bent back even farther. "_Yow!_" I screeched.

Chopper hurried over to the top of the room and looked in. "Are you okay?!" His eyes were huge with concern.

"I'm… I'm fine," I grimaced. "Ow… ow…" _I could have been on a higher rung… it could be worse…_ My attempted optimism wasn't working out that great.

Luffy was in the corner of the room and he spoke up. "You right leg looks bad."

"It's my left," I corrected him.

He held up his hands in front of him and stuck his thumb and index finger on both of them out. He looked between them, and then replied, "Oh, yeah."*

I scooted over to Luffy, who was in a corner of the room that contained a lot of laundry stuff. (The corner kind of smelled, but I think that might be an understatement.) My left leg refused to help me get up, and same with my right arm. The room was sorta dark, but there was light that was dim enough to be able to see around just fine. Everything was cluttered and messy. Hammocks took up most of the room, but there were a few items here and there that actually were useful. Some heavy looking weights (_Is that one 100 kilograms?! Holy crud! And there are five of them!_), the laundry items, a few tables, and one of them even had a couple of wooden mugs on top.

"So…" Luffy began, "what happened to you after Wormy got me?"

"You mean and before you woke back up?"

"Yeah."

"Uh… Usopp got ticked off, did quite a bit of damage, actually, and… then he got owned by the snake. Then you woke up."

Chopper was making his way down the mast. When he reached the bottom, he looked at me, and it looked like his eyes started sparkling with happiness. "Really? Did he really beat up that snake?"

I smiled. "Yeah. I wish you could have seen it."

"That's so cool! I gotta go ask him about that!"

"So… you gonna let Luffy's hands fall off or what?" I reminded Chopper.

"Ehehehe… right…"

Chopper plodded over to Luffy and gently lifted his captain's hands, inspected them, and then tried to lift them to about six inches in front of Luffy's face. "Renor? Can you keep them there for a minute?" Chopper asked.

"Yeah. Sure." I placed my left arm under both of Luffy's arms.

"Thanks," Chopper mumbled while rummaging through his blue backpack.

Thirty seconds or so later, he brought out a small circular container. He opened it up and a strong whiff from some dark green, foul smelling goop came out. "Ew… what _is_ that?" I complained. It smelled like someone took an old, unflushed toilet, several pairs of dirty gym socks, and then put the socks into the toilet. They tried to flush the toilet, it backed up, the socks were still there, and then, just to top it all off, they tried to freshen the smell with a spray of something minty.

"Luffy, you have to eat this."

"No way!! That stuff is disgusting!" His face scrunched up, and he backed away.

"Chopper, doesn't that smell bother you at all? You have a more sensitive nose than us," I inquired, gagging at the smell.

"Yeah, but I had to use this stuff a bit over at Drum to help some of Doctorine's… patients…" He trailed off, and then he looked up at me. "Sorry," he murmured hastily. "The point is, I'm used to it."

"Er... it's... fine. I was just kind of curious... that's all," I said.

"Eat it," Chopper commanded Luffy.

"No!"

"You won't be able to use your hands again if you don't," Chopper warned.

Luffy's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Eat it," Chopper repeated, poking Luffy with the container.

"C-can you at least get a spoon or something? I don't want that stuff on my hands," Luffy choked.

Chopper sighed, and then went through his bag a bit longer. Luffy started to inch away, trying to escape from Chopper while the small doctor wasn't looking. I grabbed his arms, but I forgot that they were able to stretch. When he was almost hidden from sight behind a large pile of reeking clothes, Luffy unfortunately hit into a random hundred kilogram weight that was propped up against the wall. It fell, and then clattered onto the floor with a loud _boom!_

Chopper shrieked, jumped up, and almost fell into his backpack, which I thought was pretty funny. Then he turned around, hyperventilating, but he saw Luffy, who had a frozen face of fear. "I found a spoon," Chopper sighed. "Now you can eat it."

"Aw... Do I have to?"

"Yes." Luffy crawled back over to near Chopper and me. "Oh, Renor? Can you lift up his arms again?"

"Sure..." I did when he was a bit closer to me, even though I had no idea what it that did.

While Luffy was holding his breath and having his medicated goop spooned into his mouth, Chopper looked over at me and explained the importance of my task. "It keeps the blood flow from continuing to clot in his hands. If his hands are above the height of his heart, the flow there becomes slower."

"Tho thith a mitheree thathk!" Luffy said with his mouth jammed full with the horrid slime.

Chopper gave a small smile and nodded.

Luffy grinned to himself as if he had just solved the crime of the century, then he gagged when Chopper put another spoon filled to the top into his mouth.

I waited patiently for Luffy to finish swallowing the odd medicine. When the entire container was gone, he gasped for air and pulled his tongue out with one hand and thoroughly wiped it down with the other. After that, he rubbed his wet hand on his jean shorts to dry the saliva off.

"Thank goodness that's over with. Um... can I go now?"

"No. Now you have to let the medicine digest."

"Come _on!_"

He crossed his arms angrily, but he calmed down when a delectable waft from Sanji's food floated down into the room and almost completely got rid of the goo's lingering smell. "Renor, now I have to take care of your broken bones," Chopper stated.

I sighed. "How long is this going to take?" My stomach growled. "I'm hungry; I hope it doesn't take too long."

"It shouldn't if you do everything I say."

"Alright."

"Where does it hurt?" He poked my right arm by the elbow.

"Ow."

"Here?" He poked by my right arm's shoulder.

"Ow."

"What about... here?" He touched my knee on my left leg.

"_Yowch!_"

This continued for a minute or so, and everywhere he poked, it hurt. "How did you make it to the ship?!" Chopper suddenly exclaimed.

"I managed."

"You're going to have to have your left leg splinted, just for tonight, and I'll have to put your right arm in a cast."

"Really?" I moaned.

"Yeah."

"I guess you're right, but won't you have to relocate my leg, too?"

"Yup." He turned into his human form and grabbed my leg.

_Oh no..._

_Crack! _Well, it wasn't really a 'crack', but it sure almost sounded like one. (Maybe it was some kind of 'pop'...) Chopper jammed the bottom part of my leg forward and then backwards in one painful second.

"YOW-OW-OW!" I yowled.

"Does it really hurt that bad?" I think Chopper was honestly confused; he might never have had a bone relocated.

My right arm instinctively shot forward to console my sore leg, but then my broken right arm regained pain of its own. "Ow..." It recoiled back to its original spot.

"Okay..." Chopper went back to searching through his backpack. "Some bandages... Got them." He held out a large roll of bandages. Chopper scooted towards me. "Do you think I should pull up your sleeve so I can get a better look at your arm?"

"No!" I shouted. He looked at me, confused. "I mean... it's fine; you don't have to."

"I think I really should—"

"It's fine! You don't have to!" I hastily replied, accidentally letting my voice rise.

"Are... are you sure?"

My mouth had grown dry again. I swallowed to try to get some moisture back. "Y-yeah."

"Okay." He held up his roll of bandages and started wrapping up my arm in such a professional way, that in only a minute it resembled a sling. When he was finished, I tried to move my wrapped up arm, but it wouldn't budge at all.

"Chopper, how am I going to eat like this?"

"You can still use your left arm; there's nothing wrong with it except it being a tiny bit sore… and the hands kind of squished… But, you know, it's not _that_ bad. I think."

"Yeah... you're right..." I gave in. He was right, but it didn't mean I'd have to like using my left arm for everything. (And his little 'I think' comment didn't make me feel that great about the hand.)

"Just keep your arm completely still, and it should mend itself. Wait two months or so."

"Two months?! The next island isn't two months away! How the heck am I going to defend myself?!"

"Uh... yeah. I mean, you can probably take it off before then, but better be safe than sorry, right? Eheh..." he nervously chuckled.

"Ugh..." I looked over at Luffy; he had it pretty easy compared to me. One, he had his Gum-Gum powers to help him eat, and two, all he had to do was rest for a bit and he'd be fine. _Two months... ugh..._

_**You know you shouldn't trust that weirdo reindeer-man. He's a **_**pirate's **_**doctor!**_

_I hate you. I hate you _so_ much. I hope you know that._

_**Of course I know that.**_

_Then leave me alone._

'_**Kay. See you later.**_

I sighed. I began wondering if I was the only person in the world who had an evil second voice. _No... there are a ton of psychos on the Grand Line. I'm not alone._ I had to smile at that thought.

"Dinner!" I heard Sanji announce.

"Dinner!" Luffy repeated with enthusiasm. He sprung up onto the deck after only taking a few rungs up.

"Luffy! You're supposed... to be... rest... ing... Oh, I give up." Chopper looked up at me, and said, "He'll be fine." It seemed like he was more trying to comfort himself than me.

"Yeah, of course."

"He _is_ Luffy after all, right?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Are you even listening to me, Renor?"

"Yeah, of cour—wait, what?"

Chopper sighed and started walking away, still in his human form. Before he left, though, I had one quick question. "What about the weird poison stuff the snake gave everyone? Shouldn't you check them up, too?"

He looked at me and replied, "It's fine. It was only some sleeping stuff. You breathed it the wrong way, though; that's why it seemed so bad."

"Really?"

"Large amounts of it are deadly, but no one got enough for it to be fatal. Remember how the paleness went away quickly?" I thought about it for a moment, and realized he was right, so I nodded. "We'll be fine." Then he scurried up the mast and onto the deck. He peered back down into the room. I was standing at the bottom of the ladder-ish setup, completely unable to get up. "Need some help up?"

"Yeah, of course," I joked.

He smiled a bit, and then leaned down and reached one of his hands down for me to grab. When I did (with my left hand), he just tugged me back onto the deck. "Thanks."

He nodded, closed the hatch in the floor that led to his bedroom, and then shrank into being a man-reindeer. I looked around for the stairs that led up into the kitchen, but I saw everyone gathering around the mast of the ship. Sanji wasn't there, but new smells were still coming out of the kitchen. _Didn't he say it was dinner?_

Luffy saw me, and he started beaming. "_Yosha!_" Everyone else around looked at him, waiting for an announcement of some sort. I was just flat out confused. "I would like everyone to say hello to our new nakama, Renor!"

"Wai... what? When did I...?" I was thinking that I remembered thinking about how nice it would be to be called nakama, but then I was suddenly a pirate without even being asked. It was very strange.

"Sanji, bring out the food!"

The blond cook strolled out of the kitchen with these _huge_ plates being held in his hands and one being balanced on his head. They each held a different meal or large amount of snacks. There were riceballs, rice, more soup, and many kinds of strange fish I'd never seen before that were each cooked perfectly. He had one of his feet hooked around one of the legs of the table from the kitchen, dragging it behind him.

"Oi, idiot, catch." Sanji kicked the table off of his foot, and, somehow, Zolo seemed to know that Sanji was talking to him.

The table flew over the railing and down towards Zolo; he caught it without a problem and then set it down. Sanji pranced down the stairs, mainly looking at Nami. When Sanji reached the table, he set down the food that was just bursting with deliciousness. "Have fun," Sanji said, and then twirled over to Nami with a ridiculously huge smile plastered on his face and said, "Nami! Your treat?"

"Ah, yes," she replied, again, clutching the top of her shirt. "Sanji-kun..."

_Kl-cack-clah..._

Before her short pause was even able to set in, she had pulled her red staff off of her leg, fully assembled it, and then, as hard as she could and with such mesmerizing speed, she hit Sanji full force on the side of his face. He was sent flying through the air, spinning rapidly, and then he sprawled onto the ground when he landed.

"And don't try to use that emergency exit _ever_ again!"**

The entire scene seemed like it had either happened in slow-mo, or lightning speed. Again, I learned that something new was possible: I wasn't able to tell how fast it happened.

"Sorry..." Sanji quietly whimpered, rubbing his bruised face.

"Banji! Bis bood is brate!" Luffy shouted, holding a plate piled with food to the absolute maximum it could hold. His mouth was also stretched super wide; it made himself resemble a chipmunk. (I think he meant, "Sanji! This food is great!")

I hadn't noticed, but Zolo had walked into the storage room. I saw him walk out, though. He came out with a barrel resting on his shoulders, a huge grin pasted on his face. He looked at the table, and then his gaze wandered to Sanji lying on the floor, who had a gentle trickle of blood flowing out of his mouth.

Zolo's smile got even bigger, but it started to resemble a smirk more. Usopp looked up at Zolo and rushed off into the kitchen.

_Plate... where's a—Oh! There's one!_ With my left arm, I reached across the table and grabbed a plate from a small pile of them. (Sanji had brought several out of the kitchen with him also.) Everything on the table looked so good, I didn't know what to take! _Heck! I'll just take something from everything!_

A bright, red lobster was sitting in front of me, and I wanted it. My mouth was drooling, and I reached out to tear off a bit. Or... more like half of it. _Alright! I'm gonna get some—_

"Renor." Luffy interrupted my thought and swatted my hand away from the waiting food. "Take off your hood first." I was kind of curious how long it had taken Luffy to swallow all of his food, because his plate was empty and so was his mouth.

At that moment, Usopp came out of the kitchen just then with a large armload of wooden mugs.

"Wait, but... I... but... I... uh..." I stuttered.

"Come _oooonn_," he whined. "You're in the crew!"

"And when did I agree to that?!"

"When... umm… oh. Well, when... Hm. Good point."

_**Don't do it! Remember: "no self-respecting bounty hunter would ask to do a Wanted criminal's **_**dishes**_**!" Let alone join their crew, **_my inner voice smugly pointed out.

"Why you..." I growled out loud.

"What?" Luffy responded, looking shocked.

"Oh! No! I wasn't talking to you!" I immediately apologized.

"'Kay. So do you wanna join?" he beamed.

"Well, um..." _This is a decision of dedication, _life_-long dedication. Should I...?_

_**Don't do it! Seriously.**_

"You know what, Luffy?"

"Huh?"

"Yes, I'll join."

"_Yahoo!_ Another member! Guys! Renor's in!"

Chopper looked up at me with his huge eyes. "Really?"

"Really," I answered.

A loud, joyous shout came from everyone on the ship. Sanji jumped up from his lying down position and yelled out, "_Yeah!_"

_**Well, what do you think, you idiot?**_

_What do I think?_

_**Yeah.**_

_I think that... _A huge smile spread across my face. I'd never had one so huge before, and knowing that, it made my smile even larger. _I think that was the smartest, most important 'yes' that I've ever said._

_

* * *

_

_*Has anyone ever known that trick where you put your hands up in front of you like Luffy did? How it works is that the two fingers that form an 'L' shape is the left, and the one that's a backwards 'L' is the right. I used that to learn my left from my right, but I'm hopeless either way, so I still use it, 'cause I'm stupid that way. xD_

_**In case someone doesn't know, there's an emergency exit that leads from the guys' bedroom to Nami's.  
_

_Oh! And a quick note. Renor's gonna be revealed next chapter. Stay tuned!! ;D_


	13. A Change of Life

"So... can I eat now?" I asked Luffy.

"Nope," he grinned. "Now you gotta take off that hood."

"A new girl in the crew!" Sanji exclaimed. "I can't wait to see her face!" He was swooning all over me, and it made me at least ten times more nervous than I had just been.

"Uh..."

"Mellorine!"

"Buh..." _Oh, dang it. I can't do this._

"Take off the hood! Take off the hood!" Zolo started chanting. He was really getting into the party; he had a plate with Sanji's food and also a mug filled with some alcoholic drink that had a thick layer of foam resting on the top.

Everyone else, unfortunately, I mean _everyone_, joined into the chant only seconds later. My stomach was suddenly gurgling with hunger, but it was also flip-flopping around with my nervousness. "I..." _gurgle_, "I... well..." My stomach felt like a pancake that someone was consistently flipping, and then that person put live butterflies into the batter. It is _not_ a good feeling.

"I..."

"Take off the hood! Take off the hood!"

I brought in a shaky breath, did a five second game of Eenie Meeny, but it turned out just the opposite way I wanted it to: _Take off the hood._

_Holy crap. Er..._

"Take off the hood!"

"Oh... okay..." I gave in. Even though I agreed, it didn't mean that I felt any bit less nervous.

First, a shudder rocketed down my body, and then I tried to take off my hood with my right hand, but then it made a point to remind me that it was immobilized by Chopper's sling. I sighed; the short wait had increased my anxiety.

My left hand timidly went up to the top of my sweatshirt's hood. A hush fell over the crew; they were all waiting for the big moment. Slightly, I tugged it, but it was enough for light to flood in and to give a rough sight of what I looked like.

"No... way..." Usopp shakily gasped.

With one last frightened gulp, I pulled it all the way off.

"GAAH! SO..."

I cringed, waiting for someone to scream and faint. And I _don't _mean the good, "Ohmigosh! So hawt!" kind of faint (at all) either.

"SO COOL!" Luffy screeched, making me cringe and almost deaf.

Now, it's time to describe myself. Right now, I'm wearing a pair of old leather gloves, beat up jeans, and a sweatshirt that's just completely white. The sweatshirt is one or two sizes too big, so when I pull the hood over my head and yank the strings to close it, it conceals my entire face but leaves a spot that's just big enough to peek out of.

But I wasn't hiding my face anymore. I'm not normal. Not by looks, anyways. Under the hood, I look like—

"RENOR! YOU'RE A LIZARD PERSON!!"

Yeah. That. Just to summarize it easily, I'm a T. Rex-lizard freak. I've got T. Rex feet, and several times I've had the embarrassment of people thinking they're supposed to be part of a mutant chicken costume. I've got the head of a lizard with a blunt snout, and I'm a kind of earthy brown-grey. But... this may seem strange(r)... I don't have a tail. I'm pretty thankful, though. Several times, it would've just gotten in the way.

Zolo choked on some of his drink, Nami was staring at me, not blinking, Sanji's injured mouth from Nami's whack started bleeding again, and Chopper, who was all bug-eyed on me, had to support the gasping, almost suffocating, Usopp from falling down. Luffy... he was all over me. He was poking me and shouting stuff like, "You're SO cool! Now I have another animal person in my crew! Alright!" I was looking at the floor and shifting my feet around a lot; I just couldn't seem to find a comfortable way to stand. And then suddenly, Luffy stopped in the middle of his excitement. "Wait."

Everyone paused to look at him.

"You _lied_ to me," he quietly breathed.

I stopped looking at the floor so I could see his face. "What? When?"

"During that storm. You said your feet were boots."

"No, I—"

/*\

** He grabbed onto my feet, and then he said, "Oi, Renor, you've got funny feet," referring to the T. Rex-like coverings on my feet, smiling.**

** "They're boots."**

** "No, no. I think they're feet."**

** "They're... **_**boots**_**," I insisted.**

/*\

"Oh... yeah..."

He looked at me with saddened eyes.

"I-I'm sorry."

Still, his face didn't change. Instead, he looked at the ground. "Luffy...? I... uh... I, uh..." Then a brilliant idea struck me. I gave him a smug smile. "Wanna have an eating contest?"

Everyone's face, except Sanji's, changed to have a different kind of shock. "She didn't just—" "She can't—"

"I'll start cooking again," Sanji sighed, walking off into the kitchen.

Luffy's face shot up to meet mine with a malicious grin. "You're on!"

_This is going to be fun! An all-I-can-eat buffet! And for free, too! Plus, I'm on Luffy's good side again. He seems like a cool guy..._

_**For a pirate!**_

That time, I completely ignored my inner voice.

The table was still filled with food, and I was about to grab some, but then Usopp burst out, "Oh! Wait! We need to get some food before the contest starts!" He was right, of course, so everybody but Luffy and me dumped more food onto their plate. Once they'd all taken what they wanted, half the food was already gone.

Luffy and I both groaned at the same time. "Less food..." I complained. I straightened up and brought a grin back on my face. "Well, it's better than nothing, right?" I pointed out.

"Yeah, you're right," Luffy agreed, back to his smiley self again.

"When you're ready," I told him.

"When _you're_ ready," Luffy playfully smirked.

"Okay. On your marks, get s—Go!" I plunged my movable left hand into a big salad bowl that Sanji had beautifully arranged, but then how good it _looked_ was ruined in a second. Huge scoops of salad were hastily jammed into my mouth.

"Eat! Eat! Eat!" everyone cheered, thankfully recovered from the shock of their first real sight of me. (I was kind of amazed how well they handled it; the last person who saw my face besides the Stupid Trio hadn't… handled it too well.)

Luffy had an unfair advantage, I realized at that moment. He had an expandable mouth, _and_ he could use both of his hands. _Just all the more reason for me to try harder! I'm _not_ going to lose a competition I started!_

The salad had disappeared in less than fifty seconds, even though I think that some of it ended up lodged in my throat. While I was searching for the lobster I so desperately wanted, I was trying to make saliva and swallow as much of it to wash down the first part of my meal before the next.

_Found it!_

Luffy had already finished an entire platter that had been lined up with several fish. There weren't even any more bones left, only a few... erm... 'crumbs' of fish.

The lobster was Luffy's next appetizer (_What's a _meal_ for him?!_), but I was determined to get to it first. "Move it! That's mine!" I demanded, and I roughly elbowed him out of the way and stuffed the entire red crustacean into my mouth, trying to attempt Luffy's expandable mouth capacity.

"Hahaha! Look at her mouth!" Zolo cracked up.

"Eat! Eat! Eat!" everyone else continued.

I almost choked on the lobster, so I had to pull most of it from my mouth. My eyes were streaming from my hand being reached into my throat, but I couldn't wipe my eyes because it would've wasted time. I spat out the shell that was caught in between my teeth and stuck to the roof of my mouth.

I quickly swallowed what was left in my mouth, and then I finished the lobster soon after. I made sure to not try that stupid trick again.

Almost the rest of the table had been emptied by Luffy, but I'd been able to have several rice balls after the lobster.

"Eat! Eat! Eat!"

"There's nothing left on the table but plates!" I shouted. "There's nothing _to_ eat!"

Right when I was sure Luffy had won and there wasn't a chance of me doing anything to catch up, Sanji ungracefully came out of the kitchen with several plates that contained more food.

This time, there were wontons, yakitori, which are an amazing kind of chicken kabob, sushi, takoyaki, more riceballs, and one or two fish. Each platter was piled high with its steaming meal.

"There goes almost our entire food supply," I heard Sanji mutter while he was setting down the rest of the food on the table.

I really wanted the wontons, but Luffy reached for that plate and got it before me. He poured every single last one into his mouth, and my first thought was of how unfair that was. But then... he started to choke. He was hitting his bulging throat over and over again to try to get some out or down, but he just kept choking. _He'll be fine._ I knew he would, so I just used the extra time as well as I could.

Instead of continuing to pout over the wontons Luffy had choked on, I went for the riceballs. When I'd finished half of them, I looked over at Luffy to see how he was doing. His face was changing color, his throat blocked by too many wontons. The chanting had turned into a flurry of entertained laughs, so I assumed, kind of unsurely, that everything was fine.

When every last rice ball was gone, I grabbed for one of the still steaming fish. It was a fat, spotted one that had a large, sail-like fin on its spine. While I had been eating, Zolo had rushed off to lift the anchor with Chopper in his human form. It didn't take long before the ship started gently rocking away from the rocky, creepy island. I found myself extremely glad the Merry Go was leaving and back on course once I noticed it was moving again.

Zolo and Chopper were back to watch the contest, and Luffy was back in the game also. Since I'd finished off the yakitori, I reached for the takoyaki. Luffy's hand went for the takoyaki a split second after mine, and it landed on top of my hand. I looked at his face to see normal color returning and him gasping for air.

"I... want that," Luffy managed to say.

I split the amount of takoyaki down the middle, and Luffy started to gladly gorge himself on his allotted amount.

"Be careful not to kill yourself," I joked while stuffing a takoyaki into my mouth. I swallowed it whole, not even bothering to chew in a pitiful attempt to stay at the same pace as Luffy.

I felt myself start to get full, but Luffy was acting like he was still on empty. He finished his amount of takoyaki quickly, but I stuffed three into my mouth and chewed a bit to make sure I didn't choke. I was finished only ten or fifteen seconds after Luffy. _You're doing great, Renor! _I tried to motivate myself. _Come on! You can catch up!_

Luffy went for the yakitori and was... 'cautious' while eating them. He didn't swallow them whole, but he slurped the chicken off their sticks instead.

The next food I went for was the last fish Sanji had brought out this round. It had fins that seemed to resemble bird wings, and its tail was long and skinny.

Less than two minutes later, the table was cleared and I was on the floor, stuffed so much that I couldn't eat another bite even if some more food was right on top of my mouth. I just... couldn't.

When Luffy, now slightly round, noticed there was no more food, he barked at Sanji, "More food!"

Sanji's visible eye was slightly twitching, but then he turned his head towards me and yelled, "What were you thinking?! An eating contest with _Luffy_?!"

"Yeah," I gasped. "What of it?"

"_No_ one can eat as much as him!"

He paused when Chopper whispered, "Wapol." (I have no idea what he was talking about. Really, I don't.)

"Well, no _remotely_ normal person can eat as much as Luffy!" Sanji shouted.

"I'm not normal. I'm a lizard," I pointed out.

"Luffy's rubber, or did you not know that? That goes for his stomach, too! _You're_ not rubber!"

"Oh. Sor—" _burp_, "—ry." I was feeling more sick than I ever had in my life. Being completely honest, I was kind of worried my stomach might explode.

"_Rice!_" Luffy yelled out of nowhere.

My eyes suddenly brightened and I shot up to try and snatch the small amount of food Luffy had found. There was a clump of rice in the corner of the table right by me, and it had been missed by both of us during the actual contest. Miraculously, I got to it before him and then I shoved it in my mouth.

When I swallowed it, I immediately regretted what I had done. "Ugh... I feel sick..." I complained, falling back onto the floor.

"You should," Sanji growled.

"Ugh..." I just kept moaning. Anybody who's ever eaten ten times more than they should would know the pain I was going through. It was worse than having all those bones broken. "I lose," I admitted. "Congrats, Luffy. You are officially a food-demon."

"You're fun!" he said, beaming. "I'm so glad you're in the crew, Renor!"

I smiled back at him. I was glad I was in the crew, too, but my first night in it would be remembered as one of the most painful nights of my life: that battle, and then this.

Still, there was going to be more 'welcoming' into the crew later on.

* * *

_Whatcha think?? _8D _And no one has said anything about Renor's sharp teeth and her feet. Except Luffy. :P  
_

_**Edit 2/14/'10: **Makes more sense that Luffy would let a 'mystery person' that saved his crew join than a random passerby that has done absolutely nothing, no? x)_


	14. The Final Explanations

"I'm glad I'm in the crew also, Luffy. Thanks for letting me join!"

"You saved all of our butts there! Of course I was going to let you join!" He started laughing happily.

I smiled. _What is my life going to be like now? Much more exciting, that much is for sure, at least._

"So, Sanji," Luffy began, "is there anymore food for tonight?"

"NO!" he shouted.

"Party-pooper," Luffy mumbled.

Including me, everybody, except for Sanji, chuckled at the snide comment. "So what're we going to do now that there's no more food?" I asked, grasping my bloated stomach. "Hey, Chopper. Do you have anything for stomach aches?"

He nodded, but then he commented, "It would probably be best if you just let your food digest, though."

"That'll take all night!"

Sanji then grumbled, "It better."

I looked over at Zolo and saw that he was arguing with Nami. "Come on! I wasn't being serious!" he protested.

"A bet's a bet. You betted on Renor."

"I didn't mean it!"

"You sure sounded serious to me."

"Nami—!"

"Your debt has just doubled."

"What?"

I shrugged off their conversation and carefully stood up, using the table to help me up.

Usopp was finishing off his dinner and I waddled over to him; I felt kind of clumsy with the sudden extra weight added to my stomach. I heavily sat down next to him, and he was quick to snatch his food away so that it wasn't near me.

"Hey, Usopp."

"Yeah?"

"I heard that you tell stories."

He brightened up and then asked, "You've heard about Captain Usopp's valiant discoveries and journeys? How 'bout his battles?"

"I sure have. Do you feel like you want to tell me one of them right now?"

His face became pretty much one huge, overjoyed grin. He gave me a vigorous nod and then started with something like this: "Have you heard about my brave battle against Kuro, the Trickster?"

_Kuro? Wasn't he turned in by a Marine and killed?_

"I know what you might be thinking. 'How could Usopp have taken down Kuro himself?'"

_Well… that, too…_

"What happened is that…"

He stood up and started enthusiastically telling some fantastical story about Kuro's 'spies' being placed in a mansion, him protecting a beautiful maiden, forty million pirate underlings (that he fought single-handedly), and how he beat Kuro using only his quick wit, speed, and his skill with his slingshot. Once Usopp got to the describing the beautiful maiden part, Chopper and Luffy edged up by me to get a better spot to listen to Usopp's story.

Several minutes later, Usopp was finished. Chopper squealed in admiration, Luffy shouted, "So cool, Usopp!" and I was thinking, _He's awesome at telling stories! And I almost believed him, too._

"Awesome story, Usopp," I happily replied, and then I got up to go to bed because I was completely exhausted. And I also was thinking, more like hoping, that maybe sleeping speeds up digestion!

When I was reaching for the handle of the storage room, Zolo stopped me. "What?" I moaned.

"Did you really come onto our ship because you wanted to learn more about Luffy, or was it because you wanted his _bounty?_"

"Wh-what are you talking about?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, and I know exactly who you are."

"Huh?" I felt my legs start to shake a bit, but it was enough for me to make me feel more nervous. I'd hoped nobody on the Merry Go knew that I'd been a bounty hunter; I kinda had to give that up after joining the crew, which should've been obvious.

"Okay, I know you're the White Whip—"

_White Whip?_

"—and I'm pretty sure our sharp-shooter—" he looked at Usopp, "—knew it, too, but I think he decided he was wrong after a bit."

"White Whip?"

"You don't know… your own… name?" Zolo asked, absolutely not believing what he was hearing. "Or are you still pretending?"

"No, no. I'm not denying anything; you found me out. But… White Whip?"

He rolled his eyes. "You've heard about me, right? I'm Roro—"

"Oh! You're Roronoa Zolo! Wait, isn't that Zoro…? Zorro… Zor… ro… Oh, yeah! You're that funny guy with the hat that carves 'Z's in everything!" I announced, proud that I figured it out all on my own.

Zolo's face fell into a 'wow-you-really-are-an-idiot' face. "No… I'm Roronoa Zolo; the 'Pirate Hunter.' I didn't give myself the name, but people know me as that."

"Oh, yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 'Kay, I remember now!" I grinned. "Roronoa Zolo… Roronoa Zolo… Yeah, you're that guy who, uh… bounty hunted… and… and stuff."

"Yeah… that's… me…" He was looking really annoyed.

"Yes! I _thought_ so!"

He shook his head and then said, "So, as I was saying, every good bounty hunter becomes known eventually, and the same goes for pirates." I nodded. "It looks like you managed to get yourself a name."

"Really?"

"As I said, you're 'White… Whip.'" He retold me my nickname as if I was a little baby.

"Geez, I got it. But why_ that_ name?"

"You're always wearing that white sweatshirt, and most people see only that and you using your whip to help you get somewhere before you disappear."

"That's cool!"

"Uh… sure."

"So are you going to let me go to bed now, 'Mr. Pirate Hunter'?"

"Keh… fine." He rolled his eyes again, walked a few steps to the right, collapsed against the wall, slumped onto the floor, closed his eyes, and started snoring. Just like that.

"Oh… kay, then. _Now_ can I go to bed?" I wondered out loud to no one in particular.

I was reaching for the handle of the storage room again, when Chopper ran up to me. I almost yelled out, "What?" but then I looked down at his teddy bear-like face and decided against it but was still feeling annoyed.

"Renor, what's your dream?" was his out-of-the-blue question.

"Wait, what?"

"What do you want to do in your life? I'm gonna be the doctor that can cure anything, and everyone else has a dream, too. So what about you?"

"Me? Um…" My 'dream' seemed stupid. Or maybe not. It's not like I'd actually _know,_ considering what it was. "Finding out who I am."

It was Chopper's turn to ask, "What?"

Yeah. I have pretty much no idea. I only remember up to four years ago or so, but I never really thought about it too much, so it never seemed to accumulate that many questions.

"Yup. I don't remember that far into my past, so I guess my 'dream' is finding out who I am."

"Really? Maybe I can try to come up with something to help you with that, then!"

"Could you do that?"

"I… I could try…"

"That's so cool, Chopper!"

"Eheehee… you know that won't make me happy… heehee…"

"Anything else you want to ask?"

"Huh? Oh. Um… You don't need a splint, right? Your leg doesn't hurt?"

"The one you relocated earlier?" I flinched thinking about that painful memory. "Yeah, it's fine."

"You sure? It doesn't hurt at all?"

"Well, I wouldn't say 'at all,'" I replied, realizing that my left leg was feeling rather sore, "but I'll be fine."

"Positive?"

"Yes, Chopper," I answered. "Is it bedtime yet?" I checked my imaginary watch.

"Oh. Sorry. Good night, then."

"Good night."

"You know it's only a bit past noon, right?"

"Really?" I groaned.

"I mean… I mean…" he stammered. "I mean you can sleep right now if you want… I was just saying it's kind of early…"

I glanced at Zolo, who had just let out a sudden 'hronk' sound in his sleep. Before saying anything else, I let out a sigh. "Sorry, Chopper. I'm just kind of tired."

"It's okay. Sanji gets worse than you after Luffy or I snatch food."

"Wait… _you_ steal food?" Truthfully, it never occurred to me that Chopper might be an occasional food thief.

He sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "Well…"

"It's fine, I get it," I smiled. "I'm going to be going down to… my… bedroom… now."

"Oh! Sorry! Um… Good night, Renor."

"Again, good night, Chopper."

Taking the chance while I had it, I clumsily hurried off to my new bedroom. I settled down in a cozy position, reached under one of the cushions to make sure that my backpack was still there (it was), and brought my hood back over my head and pulled it closed. What can I say? Old habits die hard. Once I was starting to drift off into the comfortable darkness of sleep, someone stepped onto that one creaky stair, and it alerted me to a visitor.

I lifted my head up to see who it was. Nami. _Please don't bother me about my money, please don't bother me about—_

"Where is it? Now that you're definitely part of the crew, every berry of yours is mine."

"But… Nami… please…"

"It's mine."

"Nami!"

"_Mine."_

"AUUUUGH!"

She let out a content sounding chuckle but then added a bit more to what she came down to say. "Renor, your role in the crew."

"What about it...?" I moaned.

"You're gonna prioritize what we need to buy at islands; do we need more gunpowder, water, you know."

"Food," I mumbled, turning over.

"_Besides_ food, nitwit. We're always going to be needing it with Luffy on the crew and now you, the hog." She started up the stairs but after only a couple steps up, she told me, "By the way, if I find out that you were telling me to buy stuff that we really don't need, it's coming out of your money."

"Huh?"

A nod. "I'm not going to be wasting money. I'll give you a notepad to write down what we need tomorrow. Just write in it a day or so ahead of when we're going to land on an island. Okay?"

Glancing up at Nami, I saw a smug smile on her face. "Good night, Renor." And then she left.

Again, right before sleep fell on me, something else came out of nowhere to bother me. It was a small memory. A small, small memory...

_Oh, geez! I forgot to return the orange juice mug!_

-x-

The morning after my first night as a Straw Hattian on the Merry Go, I asked Nami for an unused notebook to write what I _wanted_ to write. She said she'd give me one… for a thousand berries. Extremely reluctantly, I gave her the amount she asked for and I got a pencil for 'free' along with the notebook. The notepad, for my role on the crew, was also added for 'an obligatory' three hundred berries. (Geez, is she a witch.)

I knew I could've easily bought a notebook for much less at the next island if it had people, but I had no idea how easy it would be with Luffy nearby.

For the past few nights, I've been working on this. Thank goodness I'm finally done! I think that I'm ambidextrous after all that work with my left hand. Man... I'm surprised I actually was able to finish...

But, who knows? Maybe this wasn't really only for me; maybe one day someone might end up reading this.

* * *

_I couldn't leave that 'Zorro' thing out of here. xD It's just that's pretty much the only reason I call Zolo... well, Zolo and not Zoro. Sorry, Oda-sensei. :P (Well, there_ are_ more reasons, but that's just one of them.)_

_ I know the whole short Kuro arc (if it can even be called that) didn't happen that way, but come on. It's Usopp, ya know? x)_

_Thanks for reading, and have a good day. **:**) I had a lot of fun writing this! :D And _**be sure to review!**_ ^_^ (By the way, I think that Vivi and Karoo were at the Forest Boss's prototype version of Gedatsu's baths/hot springs or something. :P)__  
_

_**Edit 2/14/'10: **I'm going to be using my rusty cogs in that thing called a 'brain' of mine to not make Renor's amnesia thing cliche. Really. I think I have a good idea already... I'm surprised no one's used it... (It wasn't caused by a weird organization or anything. Seriously. -_-")_

_**Edit 5/9/'10: **...Did it really take me this long to come up with a role for Renor? -headdesk- (I just added it today.) And, really? No reviews on this for four months? Yet I've had six favorites (and two alerts... -_-;) since then. Huh.  
_


	15. About da Snakey

**_Edit 2/14/'10:_ **_Well, I'm kind of wondering if anybody really IS checking back on this. x) If you ever want to know instantaneously if I've updated this 'chapter', check the Edit date. I'll change it every time I add something new. =) Your best chance is probably checking in twice a month or something. If you really _do _care._

_Sorry for this rushed piece of... crud. Just in case you're wondering, 'unknown' or something of the sort = I was too bust drooling during class to think of anything. Anyways, this is only if you're wondering about the snake or anything_. _The _main _attraction of this week will be on the 24th (hopefully) where I'll be submitting my Christmas special! :D_

_Oh, and this is _not_ written from Renor's point of view. There's just no _way_ she'd know this stuff. 'Kay! Onto the... stuff._

_

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_

What happened to the creator of this vicious beast is unknown. There are two likely actions that the creator did after making the snake: s/he either fled the island, or s/he was eaten or killed by the monster. Most likely the latter. The snake was created for either a) revenge b) making money in some sick sort of way or c) _unknown_. Completely unknown.

**Attacks:** As you all know **(If you read all the chapters -cough cough-)**, the snake can shoot its tail barb at its victims or try to bite them. Impaling them is also a way that the snake has killed numerous people. The needles are a strange touch, but katana and swords are expensive pieces of weaponry, so the creator decided on something cheaper: needles. S/he had some specially made just to start off the creature's teeth, but after that... the snake figured out how to make its own. The reason why it was so careful with Renor was that it couldn't see her face, and through the mouth or nose is how the snake can get the vapor into its victims' bodies. When given in low doses, as Chopper said, it isn't deadly, but can induce sleeping. Its 'favorite' type of vapor is made out of burned and pulverized organs, molten metal, and... other stuff. Probably minerals and stuff. **(Unknown!! xD) **

**Making its needles: **The acidic vapor that it shot out of its cords solidifies after a few hours of being untouched. The vapor can be changed into more harmless stuff, such as water vapor from the air, and used to create fog so that sneaking up is much easier. One problem for the snake, though: the human body makes impossible for the more deadly vapor to solidify in a body and kill the victim from there. That's why the snake ends up making them unconscious and _then_ doing its work from there.

**Body setup: **With Renor ultimately killing the snake using the spool of string in its head... yeah. That was basically its brain. The string had special micro chip stuff set in it; there was vital information it needed, and it was overly complicated and advanced, so the person who made it probably was from one of those more advanced islands in the Grand Line.

**Victims: **Some of you may have been wondering why nothing's decaying. The reason is that once just the right amount vapor (which would be quite a bit) has gotten stuck in the circulatory system, it sticks to the cells and stops their movement almost entirely. After that, it keeps away anything else that might do anything to the body. Fungus, flies, everything is warded off by the strange 'warnings' that the final product of the murderous vapor supplies.

My sister thought the horse came out of nowhere. It was actually the steed of one of the people hanging from the needles. **(xP)** The victims that ended up not 'complete' like the people... That was because only one creature can be in the pit at one time. Chopper was an exception because of his Devil Fruit. For example, the horse would've ended up stomping on the rat out of fear of dying, and that would've been useless to the snake. The animals were each in the pit for an different amounts of time, which should've been obvious. The stitching with the hawk and people was to make sure the poison stayed in to keep away decay.

* * *

_Anymore questions? I know I've skipped over stuff. I'm brain dead though. _8D _I'll try thinking of more stuff... xP But this is probably it since I'm dumb that way. D:_

_Oh. No one noticed how the tangerines Sanji picked in chapter five fell into a plothole. Nami won't be happy... o_o  
_


	16. Holidays Special!

_Did you know that Chopper's birthday is December 24th??_ 8D

_Oh, yeah. I've changed Santa's name to Senta, just for the sake of One Piece. I dunno... But doesn't 'Senta' seem like a great name for some guy who goes around delivering presents? Anyways, I hope good ol' Saint Nick doesn't take offense from that. He's a cool guy. ^_^ And my readers (-coughreviewerscough-) are all really cool, too. :D_

_Enjoy!!  
_

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_

Everybody on the Merry Go was hyped up for three reasons: it was Chopper's birthday, Christmas Eve, and tomorrow was Christmas! Which... all are the same thing, kind of... I guess.

Even though it wasn't far at all from Christmas day, with us being on the Grand Line and all, the weather was sunny, warm, and inviting, almost as if the Grand Line was having its own odd way of saying, "Have a merry Christmas!"

Luffy was spinning around and singing. (if you can call what _he _calls 'singing' singing) "Chopper's birthday! Christmas Eve!! Lalalalala!" Nobody was able to tell him to stop, because when the captain is stupidly happy, everyone else is, too.

"Sanji! We need a cake for Chopper!" Luffy finally said.

Chopper was filled to his maximum with joy. He was cussing obscenely at everyone who told him, "Happy birthday," but everyone knew that was his own version of a, "Thank you." Sort of.

"Cake!" Luffy commanded again.

"Alright, alright. Give me a second," Sanji replied.

I'd just wished Chopper a happy birthday, so I had my own string of joyous cusses trailing after me. Just for the need of something to do, I joined in with Luffy and his singing, but I changed the lyrics a bit to try and confuse him, just for fun. "Happy birthday, Cho-o-op-per! You _kno-ow _it's Christmas Eve! Lalalala, lalala la, it... is Christmas Eve."

Luffy continued his song, but it ended up slowly morphing into my version. When he figured out what was happening, his grin changed into a confused frown. I shrugged playfully. He shrugged back and his beaming smile returned. We started yodeling my version, and I'm sure we sounded horribly tone deaf, because we got a couple requests of, "Shut up! You suck!"

Finally, to everyone's relief, Sanji strolled out of the kitchen and announced that Chopper's birthday cake was ready. Luffy and I shut up and then raced each other up and into the kitchen, both trying to get the best slice first.

Before either of us made it into the kitchen, though, Sanji gave Luffy one of his lighter kicks, even though it still sent the captain sprawling across the floor right outside the kitchen. Sanji then barred my way into the kitchen using his other leg.

"Birthday boy gets the first slice," he casually told us, letting a stream of smoke out of his mouth after taking his cigarette out.

Luffy complained, "Come on, Sanji! We were up here first!"

Chopper happily bounded up the stairs and skipped into the kitchen under Sanji's leg that he was using to keep me out. (Apparently there are some advantages to being short.)

The rest of the crew, Nami, Usopp, and Zolo, followed after the small man-reindeer once Sanji lowered his leg and walked into the kitchen.

Ironically, Luffy and I were the last ones in.

My first glance of the cake just renewed my respect for Sanji. I have always been amazed at how quickly he can create such delicious meals, snacks, and, on occasion, desserts. (Usually for specifically Nami.)

The cake was covered with pink icing and had a picture of a skull and crossbones with cherry blossom petals delicately made out of icing and frosting on the top.

Chopper was looking at the design Sanji had made with huge eyes, mouth hanging open slightly. "Wow... Thank you, Sanji," Chopper quietly murmured. The cook just nodded silently.

When I reached my seat on the bench, Sanji had already finished cutting and the entire cake had been separated onto different plates. Luffy and Chopper got the biggest slices (for obvious reasons), and Nami had one that was only _slightly_ larger than the rest of the boys' and mine.

The birthday reindeer was thoughtfully eating his slice, while Luffy, Zolo, Usopp and I just gobbled ours down. Nami and Sanji, however, ate theirs, well, kind of normally. The taste... wow. It's hard to express in words how delicious Sanji's food really is. There should be some stronger words out there than 'delicious,' 'delectable,' 'mouthwatering,' and words like that, but, unfortunately, there just isn't.

It hadn't even taken thirty seconds for Luffy to start begging for seconds. "There isn't anymore, idiot," Sanji growled. "And don't try to come in here tonight for a snack, or else Senta won't come," he then warned, a mischievous glint in his eye.

"Oh, Sanji! You're right!" Luffy turned his head up to face the ceiling, hands clasped together, and pointedly said, "Senta! I've been really good this year!"

Except for Chopper, Usopp, and me, everyone rolled their eyes. We hadn't rolled our eyes; we were all smiling instead. We each had a different kind of smile, though. Usopp had his kind of smile as if he had just gotten a really good idea for a story, Chopper had a smile of, "Hooray! Senta!", and I was just smiling out of entertainment, really.

Zolo sighed and stood up off the bench. "I'm probably just going to get more sword polishing items. Not like I _don't_ need them, but it's all I ever get." He paused. "If I've been good for the year."

"Wait," Sanji interrupted, looking like he was preparing himself to laugh. "_You _believe in _Senta_?"

Zolo shot Sanji a murderous glare. "What of it?"

That was when Sanji fell onto the floor and burst out in a flurry of laughter. Usopp was snickering to himself, Nami was smiling, and I was thoroughly surprised, actually. Never had it occurred to me that _Zolo_, of all people, would believe in Senta. Luffy and Chopper seemed dumbfounded by everyone's reactions.

Zolo was looking between everyone, and he was angrily roaring, "What?! _WHAT?!!_"

"Senta! You believe in '_Se-enta_'!" Sanji mocked. His eyes were tearing up from his laughter.

Zolo stormed out of the room while Sanji continued laughing. I glanced over at Chopper and I saw that he was unsurely swinging his legs under the table, looking slightly hurt by what Sanji had said.

"Guys, come on. There's nothing wrong with believing in Senta," I tried to explain. I didn't believe in the jolly gift-giving man myself, but just because Luffy and Chopper did, it didn't change my thoughts about them in the slightest.

"Yeah," Luffy agreed, slightly pouting. "Senta's going to be here tonight."

"Right," Sanji said, wiping his wet eyes while smiling. He straightened up a bit, stopped laughing, and then announced, "I'll wash the dishes. You all just have a good night's sleep." He was still smiling a bit to himself.

Everyone, except me, nodded and walked off. Chopper quietly stared at his empty plate for a moment longer, and then he plodded away to his bedroom.

Sanji picked up all the plates from the table and then glanced at me. "Why're you still here?"

"That wasn't really nice."

"What?" He grinned again. "Making fun of moss-head?"

"No. I'm talking about Chopper." Sanji's smile disappeared, and he stopped what he was doing to give me his full attention. "Didn't you see how that upset him?"

He cracked a small grin, and then commented, "But seriously... Senta..."

"It doesn't make a difference."

He sighed. "Okay, fine. You're right. Just get to sleep, though, will you? It's getting late."

I finally nodded and headed of to Nami and my bedroom. "You should apologize to Chopper when you get to your bedroom."

"Mom," Sanji mumbled.

"What was that?!" I snapped.

"Nothing. Alright. Good night." He absentmindedly waved me away and set to work on the dishes. The last thing I heard that night before disappearing into the storage room to head to Nami and my bedroom was the running water from the faucet and the gentle scrubbing of cloth on dishes.

When I woke up, I looked around the bedroom for a bit to let my eyes adjust to the gloom. Nami wasn't awake yet, so that came as some rather big news to me since that had never happened before. I carefully tiptoed up the stairs and took care to avoid that specific squeaky one.

When I was up on the deck, I found that it was still night. I was pretty surprised about that, too, since I don't think I've ever woken up in the middle of the night before. A slight breeze blew by, but it chilled me enormously. I pulled my gloves up a bit more to make sure they were covering as much of my hands and wrists as possible.

"Ugh... Now I'm tired again," I whispered to myself. _Being cold-blooded sucks,_ I thought.

I started to slowly walk away and back to my bedroom, but then a small, quiet voice spoke up, almost as if it came out of nowhere.

"Renor, what do you think?"

My heart burned my chest with fright, and I froze, even though the sudden chill from the breeze was gone.

"Who's here?" I asked warily.

"Chopper," the voice answered.

"Oh. Haha, you kind of scared me for a moment," I nervously laughed. After a brief pause, I asked Chopper, "What do I think of what?"

"Senta."

"Where are you, Chopper?"

"To your left, on the railing."

I looked over and saw him sitting on the side railing, like he said, facing out to the sea.

"About Senta? Well..." I carefully walked towards him and thought about what to say. When I was leaning on the railing right next to him, I answered, "I think he can be real if you want him to be."

"Do you really think so?" Chopper turned and looked at me.

"Yeah. That's what I think."

"Alright, thanks, Renor!" He hopped off the railing and disappeared into his bedroom, smiling to himself.

"Well, bedtime again, I guess," I yawned to myself.

When I woke up again, I was _sure_ it was morning because Nami wasn't in the room.

Stretching, I then remembered, "Oh, yeah! It's Christmas!" I hopped off the couch and shot up the stairs, taking them three at a time, and I was up on the deck in a matter of seconds.

I looked around, curious about what Christmas was like on the Merry Go, but what I saw was sort of disappointing. Well, all it seemed like was a normal day on the Merry Go except for the fact that Luffy was trying to get everyone possible to dance with him.

"Ladeedadeeda!! Christmas day!! Christmas day!" he repeated over and over again. _Well, at least someone is excited, _I thought, grinning and walking over to Luffy to join in his now-a-conga-line.

"Christmas Christmas Christ_mas_! Christmas Christmas Christ_mas_!" he cheered while I was holding onto his shoulders and dancing along. After a bit, I realized something was wrong.

_Where's Chopper?_

He wasn't anywhere to be found; I hadn't seen him the entire morning. I detached from Luffy's conga line to look for Chopper with Usopp immediately taking my place.

"Christmas Christmas Christ_mas_! Christmas Christmas Christ_mas_!"

_Where is he?_ I wondered, pacing around the Merry Go repeatedly looking for him. On my second round on the ship, I finally heard giggling coming from the crow's nest. _Chopper?_

"Guys! Come up here! Quick!" His head peeked over the side of the 'nest and then he shouted down, "There's presents for everyone!"

Heads shot up to give all kinds of different expressions to this. Luffy stopped his conga line in mid-step, and his face was plastered with a grin of joy. Sanji, shock. Zolo, triumph. Usopp and Nami, quite similar, but still slightly different, types of shock.

I was in the same kind of group with Usopp and Nami: shocked. _What? Is Senta actually real?_

"Maybe we should go up one at a time so the main sail isn't affected too much from everyone being up there at one time," Usopp cautiously suggested.

Chopper shook his head. "Never mind. It's fine. I'll bring them down myself," he told everyone, still smiling. He was carefully balancing six boxes, each with a different colored wrapping and they were each varying in size from one another. He scrambled down from the crow's nest, but he was still being extremely careful to make sure he didn't drop anything.

Once he reached the middle of the clumped circle that everyone had formed around the bottom of the ladder, he set down the colorful boxes and said, "Everyone has theirs labeled. Please don't take someone else's…" He still had to point out Luffy's box for the captain.

Luffy's was an extremely small, rectangular box, and it was wrapped in sparkling red paper. Zolo's was bigger than Luffy's, but still small and it was covered in shining green paper. Nami's was kind of a medium size; twelve inches by twelve inches, I guess, and had orange wrapping paper with extravagant designs on it.

Usopp's was a tannish kind of color for the wrapping paper, and I'd say it was about the same size as Nami's. Sanji's was a type of yellow that wasn't shiny or anything, but just its color gave the idea that it was. It was kind of skinny, but two feet or so long. Mine had this nice plain white wrapping. I don't know why; I just like the color white.

"Guys! Come on! Open them!" Chopper squealed happily.

"B-but, Chopper... what about—" I was cut off by a gleeful push and an, "Open it! Open it!"

We all did, and here's what we got: Zolo had sword cleaning items, Usopp got a book about many different stories and mythical items, Nami had a thick geography book, Sanji got a new ladle and spatula, and I had a new sweatshirt and jeans! The sweatshirt was a soft blue with a simple, but cool looking, wave design on one of the sleeves.

"Told ya so," Zolo smirked, looking at Sanji.

"Whatever. I'm going to the kitchen." He turned towards Nami. "Nami-swaaan! What would you like for a snawck??"

"Anything, Sanji-kun." She sighed. "How about you just make something special for the crew since it's Christmas, hm?"

_Wow. She's seeming a bit more generous than usual today._

"Hai, Nami-san!" Sanji rushed into the kitchen, his two new utensils in hand.

"Do you like your presents?" Chopper asked everyone.

Luffy had taken the cardboard lid off his puny box after eagerly tearing off the wrapping paper and was glancing around the box, looking for something. He turned it upside-down and then shook it. A navy blue string that was six inches long or so drifted out and started slowly floating downwards.

"Huh?" he questioned, watching it. He grabbed for it and caught it before it reached the floor. Wondering if it did anything special, he waved it through the air. When it followed his movement, he let out a playful laugh and started spinning and watching the string trailing behind him.

"I love my new sweatshirt, Chopper!" I gladly told the reindeer. "If you ever see Senta, let him know that Renor says thanks!" I grinned.

"Alright!" he giggled into his hooves. Everyone else gave a pleased nod and went off to check out their new presents. Luffy kept spinning, and Usopp opened up his book to start reading it. Nami went off to our bedroom to start reading her book and possibly make some new maps. Zolo just sat down, leaned against the mast, and started polishing up his swords.

"Are you going to try it on?" Chopper asked me, referring to my sweatshirt.

"Yeah! I'll be back in a minute."

I rushed off to my bedroom and tossed the box to the corner of the room. Nami was intently perusing through her book then. I set the jeans down on the couch, which Nami and I decided to make my new bed. She insisted that I use the extra hammock, but I liked the couch more.

Holding the sweatshirt out in front of me, I discovered that it was a bit too small. I could probably wear it around the Merry Go as a casual little thing, but there was no _way_ I could wear it off of the ship; it wouldn't be able to cover up my face or arms enough. "Aw, man..." I mumbled. "Ah well," I then sighed, setting it off to the side on the couch and picking up the jeans. _Okay, these are just _way_ too short!_ "Dang it," I breathed. Just to keep myself from becoming too upset, I shrugged it off and went back up onto deck.

Chopper was jumping up and down by Usopp, trying to get a good look at what was in the book Usopp was reading. Usopp finally held it down for him. "Look at this one!" Usopp exclaimed. "'The Golden Apple: Said to let the consumer live for a thousand years.'" Chopper looked up at Usopp and Usopp looked down at Chopper. "So cool!" they shouted at the same time.

Then Chopper noticed me. "Did you like your sweatshirt?" He was looking kind of confused.

"I really liked it, but... uh... it didn't really fit that well. I'll wear it tomorrow, though," I replied.

"I knew I should've bought a bigger size!" he angrily muttered to himself.

"What?"

"Oh! Uh... I mean, 'That's too bad!' Heehee..." He nervously scuffed his foot on the ground and then dashed off into his bedroom a moment later.

"Chopper!" I shouted after him. "Oh well." Again, I shrugged. _I wanna take a look at Usopp's book..._ I thought.

When I reached Usopp, I was looking over his shoulder and thinking about some of the things his book was saying. Some of them were really strange and random things, like the thousand foot tall watermelon, and then there was one that talked about a drum that was said to summon chipmunks. Others seemed to be _kind of_ believable, given that we were sailing on the Grand Line, of all places, though.

We both ended up sitting down and poring through the book for a bit, and then I got up, wondering about Chopper.

Opening up the hatch that led to his bedroom, I shouted down, "Chopper! Whatcha doin'?!"

The hatch was all the way up after that sentence and I saw Chopper jump up almost two feet in the air. "O-oh! H-hi, Renor!" He hid a pair of scissors behind his back.

"What're you doing with your backpack?" I wondered to the man-reindeer, curious about why his blue backpack was in front of him even though it wasn't open and he wasn't messing with his medicine supplies.

"I was... was..."

"Wait..." That moment, I put it together. Luffy's string, Chopper shouting, "I knew I should've bought a bigger size!", everything.

"Ah... I'm not Senta," Chopper offered.

"Chopper! You're Senta!" I yelled.

"Shut up, shut up," he said in his I'm-obviously-happy-but-I'm-still-going-to-try-and-feebly-hide-how-I-really-feel voice. He then started doing his clap-dance. Suddenly, he stopped in the middle. "SHUT UP!" was his angry sounding, out of nowhere order. "I'm not happy... heehee..." he giggled, starting to clap again.

At the last island, I had lent Chopper some of my money that Nami had unwillingly returned to me. Chopper had said he was going to use the money for birthday presents for everybody, but I guess he'd decided to be a 'Secret Senta' instead.

"Well, merry Christmas, Senta," I told him.

"Shut up..."

I closed the hatch again to leave Chopper to his string cutting. "Snacks! Merry Christmas!" Sanji shouted, coming out of the kitchen carrying numerous platters. There was a lobster, teriyaki roast chicken, sushi cake, and even a specially made Christmas cake!

"Ya_hoo_!" Luffy whooped, still holding onto his string and letting it trail behind him all the way to Sanji. Chopper crawled onto deck from his bedroom, gleefully responding to the call.

_Well... at least Nami's generous about the food 'budget'..._

"Sanji! Let me have some! Sanji! Sanji Sanji Sanji Sanji!" Luffy bothered his cook.

"Shut up, stretchy crap-jerk..."

"Gimme some of that cake!!"

"It's Nami-swan first!"

Oh. Yeah. And Sanji doesn't treat me like a girl, or at least treat me how he treats every single other one. I guess he's got a reason, though. It's not like a guy'd want to flirt with a scaly freak. It doesn't bother me at all, really; I'm completely fine with him not trailing after me every waking minute of the day shouting, "Renor-chwan!" and asking about my every need.

"Hurry up and give it to your swan, then," Zolo grunted. "Others are hungry, too, you know."

"Shut up, moss head."

Nami was the first to be served with whatever she wanted on the finest plate Sanji could find in the kitchen. After that, it was chaos in the clamor for food. It really didn't take long for the food to all disappear and to have everyone happy with all their food.

Luffy, finished with his overly large servings and ready to do something else, began a joke. Everyone looked at him.

"Knock knock!" he grinned.

"Who's there?" everyone moaned; I don't know anyone who's eager to hear a 'knock knock joke.'

"Holly!"

"Holly who?" was the answer mumbled in unison.

"Happy... HOLLYdays!! Haha! Get it? _Holly_days! Instead of 'holi—"

_BONK._

_

* * *

_

_Renor's slow, isn't she? xD And a sushi cake... that's a real food item! Cool, huh? The Christmas cake is also a popular dessert in Japan around... Christmas. (Duh.) Anyways, there's the last chapter in Aitia of Adventure! I really hope that you enjoyed it. :) (Did anyone catch the reference to the anime in here?) And I'd like to give one last thanks to everyone who's reviewed._

**Thanks! :D**

_Also, a special thank you goes to Oda-sensei, the creator of One Piece. And Viz Media and SJ for publishing and translating One Piece into English. ^_^ Vol. 11 in the series gets an extra thank you because it helped me out a ton with learning the layout of the Merry Go. :D_

_Oh, before I go, I'd like to tell all those chapter skippers out there to go and read the rest of the story. Yes, I pay attention to how many people read each chapter. x) (About 90% of people go from the first chapter to this one, but only about 75% or less go to the second chapter. :P)  
_

_Sorry! NOW I'm going. Laytah!_


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